The Russian company Gazprom announced that today Tuesday it will send 42.4 million cubic meters natural gas to Europe via Ukraine, up from 39.6 million cubic meters on Monday in the shadow of Ukrainian forces invading Kursk.

Russia is waging heavy fighting against Ukrainian forces that have infiltrated near the an important natural gas transportation hub in the Sundza region of Kursk, in one of the largest incursions into Russian territory since the start of the war.

The natural gas transfer and metering stations in Sundza are the only point of entry of Russian natural gas into the Ukrainian natural gas transmission system for onward transport to Europe.

Ukraine’s natural gas transmission operator has told Reuters that Russian gas continued to flow normally to Europe via Ukraine.

In May 2022, at the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the managing gas transit company of Ukraine stopped the transportation of natural gas on an alternative branch line through the Sokhranivka transit point near the Lugansk region in the eastern part of the country.

Ukraine had announced that Russian forces had begun taking natural gas transiting through Ukraine and sending it to two Russian-backed separatist regions in the east of the country.

Following the closure of Sokhranifka, transit volumes fell by a quarter as Gazprom said it was unable to divert volumes to Sunja.

The agreement on the transit of Russian natural gas to Europe through Ukraine expires this year and Kiev has said it has no intention of extending it or entering into a new agreement.