MYKOLAIV, Ukraine (Reuters) – The transit route for Russian gas supplies to Europe via Ukraine remains operational, Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko said on Thursday after reports of hostilities at the Sudzha gas transit station.

He said Russia had not contacted Ukraine about the gas transit situation.

Russia said on Wednesday it was engaged in heavy fighting with Ukrainian forces that had entered Russia’s border near the key natural gas transportation hub of Sudzha, one of the largest incursions into Russian territory since the war began.

The Sudzha gas transshipment and metering station in the Russian Kursk region is the only entry point for Russian natural gas into the Ukrainian gas transmission network and for onward transport to Europe.

The Ukrainian gas pipeline operator told Reuters on Thursday that Russian natural gas would continue to be transported to Europe via Ukraine as usual.

The operator later announced that the Russian Gazprom Group wanted to deliver around 41.7 million cubic meters of gas via Ukraine on Friday. On Thursday, however, only 37.25 million cubic meters were planned.

In May 2022, at the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Ukrainian transit operator stopped gas transportation on an alternative branch through the Sokhranivka transit point near the Luhansk region in the east.

Ukraine said Russian forces had begun intercepting gas transported through Ukraine and directing it to two Russian-backed separatist regions in the east of the country.

After the closure of Sokhranivka, transit volumes fell by a quarter because Gazprom announced that it was not possible to redirect volumes to Sudzha.

The agreement on the transit of Russian gas to Europe through Ukraine expires in 2024. Kyiv has stated that it has no intention of extending it or concluding a new agreement.

(Reporting by Viktoria Lakezina, writing by Pavel Polityuk; editing by David Goodman and Jan Harvey)