Ukraine has accused Moscow of waging a “gas war” against Europe and cutting supplies to inflict “terror” on people.
Russian energy firm Gazprom announced it is once again reducing gas flows into Germany to allow work on a turbine on the Nord Stream 1 pipeline.
But Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said this was simply “gas blackmail” against Europe.
The Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which pumps gas from Russia to Germany, has been running well below capacity for weeks.
Earlier this month, Russia’s biggest European pipeline was completely shut down for a 10-day maintenance break, sparking fears in Europe that shipments would not resume at all.
Shipments did restart five days ago – albeit still at a reduced capacity. But on Monday, Gazprom announced it would be cutting its gas supply further once again.
This time, it said it needed to cut gas supply to around half of current levels in order to carry out maintenance work. The German government, however, said there was no technical reason for it to limit the supply.
“The gas blackmail of Europe, which only gets worse every month, is needed by a terrorist state to make the life of every European worse,” said Mr Zelensky in his nightly address.
He said it was deliberately intended to make it difficult for Europe to prepare for winter, without any care for the poverty people may suffer in the colder months as a result.
