Pressure mounts over Russian gas

European countries are renewing diplomatic pressure on Russia and Ukraine over gas supplies which remain cut off because of payment disputes.

Bulgaria, Slovakia and Moldova, some of the worst-hit countries, are sending their PMs to Moscow and Kiev.

The Polish president will talk to his Ukrainian counterpart, and the European Parliament will debate the crisis.

Gas flowed from Russia to Ukraine on Tuesday, but Kiev did not pass it on to its neighbours.

In total 17 European countries have had their gas supplies from Russia either cut or reduced.


Hundreds of thousands of people are still without heating in eastern and south-eastern Europe after Moscow stopped supplies routed through Ukraine last week.
Polish President Lech Kaczynski, whose country relies entirely on Russia for its gas, will meet his Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Yushchenko to discuss the crisis.

Slovakia and the Baltic States are also entirely dependent on gas from Russia.

Due to the cuts Bulgaria has had to close schools and other public buildings, the European Parliament said.

MEPs will debate the crisis later on Wednesday.

Despite optimism on Tuesday that the dispute was nearing an end, the flow of gas was brief - and resulted in increasingly antagonistic rhetoric from both sides.

Technical arguments

An agreement, brokered late on Monday by the Czech prime minister, to allow international experts to monitor the flow of gas through Ukraine, was designed to overcome the deep feeling of mistrust between the two former Soviet neighbours.

Russian switched on the gas supply to Ukraine at the Sudzha pumping station on Tuesday morning in what Moscow officials described as a test delivery.

But Ukraine said it could not physically pump the gas to Europe in the volumes Russia was currently providing, or along the pipeline route Moscow wanted it to take.

Russian energy giant Gazprom dismissed that claim.

The arguments are hugely technical, but the fact is they cannot both be right, says the BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse in Kiev.