RUSSIA began restoring gas flows to Europe last night after its suspension of deliveries to Ukraine on Sunday devastated supplies across the Continent.

The country had earlier promised to normalise flows within 24 hours.

Russia’s gas monopoly, Gazprom, said it would pump more gas through Ukraine to make up for shortfalls in Germany, France, Italy, Austria and at least seven central and eastern European countries.

Last night Hungary, which had faced a 40 per cent cut in supplies, and Austria, which suffered a loss of 33 per cent, had announced the full restoration of pipeline deliveries.

Gazprom — which provides 25 per cent of the EU’s gas, mostly through Ukraine — said that the shortfalls were caused by Kiev siphoning off 95 million cubic metres of Europe’s supplies since Sunday.

Ukraine, which normally gets a third of its gas from Russia, denied the accusation and said that it was relying on its own strategic reserves and imports from Turkmenistan, its main supplier.

But Gazprom said that it had also cut off supplies of Turkmen gas to Ukraine, which pass through Russian pipelines, after striking a deal with Turkmenistan’s autocratic leader, Saparmurat Niyazov.

Aleksander Medvedev, Gazprom’s deputy head, told a news conference: “By tomorrow evening we are going to restore full supplies to Europe in line with our contracts.”

But he added: “This situation, where we deliver the gas and Ukraine goes on stealing it, cannot go on for ever. That would amount to encouraging the theft of gas.”

Gazprom said that it had sent a telegram to the Ukrainian state gas company, Naftogaz, saying that it would send an extra 95 million cubic metres of gas into Ukraine’s pipeline network. It emphasised that the additional delivery was not for Ukrainian consumers and that further supplies would depend on whether Ukraine siphoned it off.

Germany, Russia’s main economic partner and biggest gas customer, suggested yesterday that it would think twice about importing more Russian gas if Moscow could not prove itself a reliable supplier.

“Thirty per cent of our gas comes from Russia. That should be increased. But it can only be increased if we know that deliveries are dependable,” Michael Glos, the German Economy Minister, said.

Gazprom insists the dispute is purely commercial, saying it is quadrupling the price it charges Ukraine from $50 per 1,000 cubic metres to $230 to phase out subsidies to a former Soviet satellite. Ukraine says that it will pay market rates, but wants a smaller increase phased in over five years and accuses the Kremlin of punishing it for realigning itself with the West in last year’s Orange Revolution.

Viktor Yushchenko, the President of Ukraine, met ambassadors from the EU, Japan and the United States yesterday and said that Ukraine planned to call for international arbitration. Ivan Plachkov, the Ukrainian Energy Minister, denied dipping into Europe’s gas supplies but said that he would be forced to if temperatures — now just above zero — plunged below freezing.

Professor Jonathan Stern, director of gas research at the Oxford Institute of Energy Studies, said that Ukraine was guilty of politicising an essentially commercial dispute.

But he said Russia had damaged its reputation by insisting on an immediate price increase and cutting off the supplies from Turkmenistan. “I think this is the moment for the EU to step in. If this goes on for a week or two, people are going to raise the stakes even further. The Ukrainians have to agree to move to market prices and the Russians have to agree to a transitional period of two to three years.”