Russia's Gazprom warns Europe over gas supplies, as Ukraine fails to make advance payment

On Tuesday Russia's state-owned energy giant Gazprom warned that European gas deliveries could be under danger, as Ukraine failed to make an advance payment, thus raising the specter of another energy dispute.

The energy giant said Kyiv had 219 million cubic meters of gas at its disposal but that this would run out in two days. If the Ukrainians made no further pre-payments, Russia would cut off its gas supplies. Europe receives roughly a third of its gas from Russia, half of which flows through Ukraine.

A statement by Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said about "complete termination of the Russian gas supplies to Ukraine, which creates serious risks for the gas transit to Europe."

The energy issue threatened to escalate hostilities in Ukraine's war-torn eastern regions, in which unstable ceasefire between Ukrainian forces and Russia-backed rebels has reportedly been violated by both sides.

In 2014, Russia completely cut off its gas supplies to Ukraine for six months before the two sides signed an agreement in Brussels, under which Kyiv agreed to pay off some of its debts and make advance payments for gas deliveries in the winter months.

Gazprom's Tuesday statement came a day after Ukraine's state energy company, Naftogaz, accused Russia of failing to honor that deal, as it had wired Russia money for 114 million cubic meters of gas but only received 47 million.

In turn, it also followed an announcement by Russia that it would send some supplies to rebel-held areas of Ukraine after Kyiv stopped providing energy to those regions.