MOSCOW, Jan 20: Russia and Ukraine resumed pumping natural gas to Europe on Tuesday, signalling the end of a crisis that has exasperated European leaders and deprived millions of heat in the middle of winter.

“We can now tell our citizens that gas is finally on its way,” European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso told reporters in Brussels.

“Our monitors on the ground report that the gas is flowing normally.” Slovakia, Hungary and Bulgaria confirmed that the gas was flowing again, two weeks after it was halted amid a bitter dispute between Moscow and Kiev that led to the European Union’s worst-ever gas crisis.

Both Russian state-run energy giant Gazprom and its Ukrainian counterpart Naftogaz confirmed that gas flows had resumed after they signed a 10-year contract on Monday to end their dispute.

“The transit of Russian gas

to Europe via Ukraine, and shipment of gas to Ukrainian customers, were started in accordance with the agreements,” Gazprom said in a statement.

In Kiev, a spokesman for Naftogaz, Valentin Zemlyansky, told AFP that the gas was flowing into Ukraine’s pipeline network via all points of entry from Russia.

The EU’s Czech presidency said it would take several days to be sure of an end to the gas crisis, which has affected millions of people in eastern and central Europe and led to shut-downs of schools and factories.

“We will be fully satisfied after three or four days of supplies to Europe,” said Czech Industry Minister Martin Riman, whose country holds the EU’s rotating presidency.

Barroso criticised Russia and Ukraine over their handling of the gas crisis.

“I was very disappointed in these days about the way the leadership in these two countries negotiated,” Barroso said, though he added that Europe would continue to develop ties with the two ex-Soviet neighbours.

A senior EU official, Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs, backed Ukraine over a key issue in the dispute, saying there was no evidence to support Moscow’s claims that Ukraine had stolen Russian gas bound for Europe.

“I have no evidence that Ukraine took gas without permission,” Piebalgs said during a joint press conference in Kiev.

As details emerged about Monday’s agreement, it appeared that Ukraine had lost ground to Russia by agreeing to a major price hike in the price it would pay Moscow for gas -- at least in the short term.—AFP