Moscow, January 2:

Russia followed through on its threat to stop natural gas supplies to Ukraine, in a fierce political standoff that is threatening to affect domestic fuel bills across Europe.

Delivery from Siberian gas fields to Ukraine was cut off by reducing pressure in the pipeline network that also carries billions of cubic metres of gas chiefly to Germany, Italy and France.

The fallout was immediately felt in Germany and Hungary last night as gas suppliers warned of possible cutbacks.

A spokesman for the Russian state-controlled monopoly Gazprom, Sergei Kupriyanov, said, “From the beginning, the Ukrainian authorities prepared themselves for a conflict. They knew that from January 1 they would start non-sanctioned extraction of gas. To be precise, stealing.’’ Russia’s foreign ministry issued a statement saying that if Ukraine did not guarantee uninterrupted delivery to the European Union it would bear “Fall responsibility’’ for worsening relations between the neighbouring countries.

Gazprom said the volume of gas being sent to western Europe was unaffected, but accused Ukraine of siphoning off transit supplies for its consumption. Ukraine denied the charge, saying the energy giant had cut the volume flowing across its territory to European importers. It issued a counter accusation that Russia was leaching Ukraine’s gas supplies from Turkmenistan, through pipes which transit Russia.

Russian gas deliveries to Hungary via Ukraine fell by another 5-10per cent yesterday an big gas consumers were ordered to switch to oil where possible, Hungary’s natural gas wholesaler Mol said. “Gas shipments are now down by more than 25per cent, a company spokesman, Sandor Kantor, told Reuters news agency.

The head of Germany’s gas distributor warned that Russia’s move to cut off natural gas to Ukraine could eventually crimp supplies for German industrial customers. Big business customers “are not affected at the moment, but down the line limited reductions in supply are not excluded,’’ Ruhrgas’s chief executive, Burckhard Bergmann, warned.

The crisis has escalated in the past week to resemble a full-scale cold war confrontation between two formerly friendly Soviet countries with closer historical links than England and Scotland.

The row is now on the verge of torpedoing the Kremlin’s promise to be a stable energy partner to its western allies, after it formally assumed the presidency of the G8 group of leading industrialised countries yesterday.

There are fears that energy companies will capitalise on concern over supplies to western Europe by increasing their prices, hitting domestic consumers. Energy ministers from EU countries will meet on Wednesday for talks on the dispute.

The roots of the “gas war’’ lie in the widening divide between Moscow and Kiev since Ukraine signalled a dash towards EU and Nato integration after its “orange revolution’’ in 2004. Russia has important military bases in Ukraine and was previously pushing for its own economic union with the country.

US criticises Russian move

Washington: The United States said Russia’s decision to shut off gas supplies to Ukraine creates insecurity in the region’s energy sector and raises “serious questions” about using oil to exert political pressure.

“The United States regrets the Russian decision to cut off gas from Russia to Ukraine, with potential effects on gas supplies elsewhere in Europe,” US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in a statement on Sunday.

“Such an abrupt step creates insecurity in the energy sector in the region and raises serious questions about the use of energy to exert political pressure.” McCormack said the US supported a move toward market pricing for energy but that “such a change should be implemented over time rather than suddenly and unilaterally”.— DPA