The Czech EU Presidency and the European Commission have demanded in a statement that Russia immediately restores gas supply to the European Union.

"Without prior warning and in clear contradiction with the reassurancesВ given by the highest Russian and Ukrainian authorities to the European Union, gas supplies to some EU member States have been substantially cut," the statement reads and points out that the current situation is "completely unacceptable."

The Commission have declared they are to intensify the dialogue with Russia and Ukraine so that they can reach an agreement swiftly but urged the two parties to „resume negotiations at once with a view to a definitive settlement of their bilateral commercial dispute."

Russian gas monopoly Gazprom stopped pumping gas to Ukraine for domestic consumption on 1 January after the two countries failed to agree on a fixed price for 2009.

Later Moscow accused Ukraine of siphoning off Europe's fuel and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin ordered Gazprom to cut EU-bound exports by the amount being reportedly stolen.

On Tuesday Russia completely stopped gas supplies through Ukraine to Bulgaria, Hungary, Greece, Turkey, Romania, Serbia, Bosnia, and Macedonia. The government of Slovakia declared a national emergency; Austria and Italy reported falls of 90 per cent, while France said Russian supplies had tailed off 70 per cent.

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