The head of Gazprom's export services, Alexander Medvedev, called on the European Union Saturday to "punish" Ukraine for hampering gas transit to Europe, reported dpa.
Speaking at the start of a tour of EU countries, Medvedev said Ukraine had stolen 35 million cubic metres of gas since Friday from underground storage and pipeline, and this amount was increasing.
Moreover, Ukraine still owed Gazprom 600 million dollars from last year.
Medvedev, who was on an initial stage of a tour of EU countries including Germany, France, Britain, Belgium, Austria and Italy, said Gazprom would try to compensate EU customers with supplies from underground storage and a pipeline from Belarus.
However, he warned that there were limited capabilities for this, and while Gazprom could "settle the commercial dispute ourselves" with Ukraine, it was up to the EU to act against Ukraine by obliging it to comply with the energy charter it signed with the EU in 1999.
"Today we expect that either it will be quite clear that the organisation (EU) is not instrumental, or they should do something, because several countries already today as we meet are not receiving the full amount of gas necessary for them," he said.