Russia's state-run monopoly Gazprom announced it will resume shipping natural gas Tuesday to Europe, where tens of thousands of homes and buildings have been left without heat in freezing weather.
Gas supplies will be restarted at 0700 GMT (2 a.m. EST) "if there are no obstacles," Gazprom deputy chairman Alexander Medvedev said in Brussels.
The shift came after Ukraine signed off on an EU-brokered deal that sent teams of EU, Russian and Ukrainian monitors in to track the movement of Russian gas through Ukraine's vast pipeline system. Gazprom had shut off deliveries last Wednesday, accusing Ukraine of siphoning off gas intended for Europe, a charge that Ukraine denies.
"As soon as they (the monitors) are at the control points, and we are sure that they can control the transit of our gas, Gazprom will pump gas to Ukraine's gas transit system to be shipped to European customers," Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said at a Cabinet meeting Monday.
Russia supplies about one-quarter of the European Union's natural gas, 80 percent of it shipped through Ukraine, and the disruption has come as the continent is gripped by freezing temperatures.
The gas cutoff has affected more than 15 countries, with Bosnia, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Serbia and Slovakia among the worst hit. Sales of electric heaters have soared and thousands of businesses in eastern Europe have been forced to cut production or even shut down.
Relief will not come immediately, however. It will take 24 to 30 hours for gas to reach European customers once Russia resumes pumping, EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs said.
Russia was still not sending natural gas to Ukraine for domestic consumption. The two neighbors remained deadlocked over the price Ukraine should pay for gas in 2009 and the amount Russia should pay for transporting gas through Ukraine's pipelines. Russia stopped supplying gas to Ukraine on Jan. 1 over the price dispute.
Teams of EU monitors and officials from Naftogaz, Ukraine's state-run energy company, were already at six major gas transit stations on Ukraine's border with European countries and at three units on the Russian-Ukrainian border, according to Naftogaz.
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