An explosion destroyed a 30-metre section of the trunk gas pipeline taking Russian gas across Ukraine to Europe on Monday, but Russian gas export monopoly Gazprom said flows of gas had not been affected.
A spokesman for Ukraine's Emergencies Ministry initially said the blast had stopped the flow of gas along to Europe, which gets a quarter of its gas from Russia, but another spokesman later said a by-pass pipeline had come on stream and gas flows to Europe were unaffected. Gazprom said it was fully meeting its obligations to supply customers and its gas flows via Ukraine had not been disrupted.