KYIV, Reuters – Ukraine is not going to reopen Sokhranovka’s suspended gas transit route linking Russia with European customers until Kyiv has control over the gas transit system. The head of GTSOU’s system operator told Reuters that this was before Kyiv took full control.

This crossing point is where the gas pipeline runs through Ukraine’s Luhansk area, which was under Russian-backed separatists control since 2014. On February 24, Russia invaded Ukraine.

Sergiy Makogon, a Russian official in the gas industry, stated that Gazprom (MCX) had enough capacity to ship all of its Europebound volumes via the Sudzha transit route. The line remains open.

Gazprom was unaware of Russian-backed separatists from Ukraine’s East stealing gas transiting Ukraine. Kyiv claimed that this is one reason it declared a “force majeure on gas flows via Sokhranovka.”