Ukraine accused Russia on Sunday of deliberately reducing gas flows to customers in Europe as they face freezing winter temperatures, DPA reported. Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey have reported drops in supplies after Russian state-controlled gas export monopoly Gazprom cut off Ukraine on New Year's Day in a dispute over prices. Russia has accused Kiev of causing the disruptions by stealing volumes flowing across its territory, but Ukraine hit back by alleging Moscow was cutting flows by more than half through a key export pipeline. "Naftogaz considers the actions of Gazprom as threatening the energy security of Ukraine and Europe, which could bring unpredictable consequences for the entire gas transit system of Europe," Ukraine's state energy company said in a statement. "Naftogaz demands that Gazprom immediately renews the balanced supplies of gas to all transit pipelines supplying Russian gas to European consumers." Gazprom said on Sunday it was honouring in full its commitments to supply customers in Europe, Russian media reported. Gas flows to Germany, Europe's biggest economy, were unaffected and countries elsewhere said they had sufficient fuel stockpiled to make up for shortfalls of Russian gas for several days -- though not for weeks.
