EU suffers gas shortfall as Russia, Ukraine

MOSCOW, (AFP)

EU fears of a drop in vital gas supplies became a reality Friday after Russia accused Ukraine of "stealing" from European customers and Brussels issued an urgent demand for contracts to be honoured.

Meanwhile, Russian energy giant Gazprom can no longer depend on Ukraine as a transit route to get gas to Europe and is looking at alternatives, the firm's deputy chief executive told the BBC.The EU's brand new Czech presidency was forced to issue a late-night call Friday for the "immediate resumption" of full gas supplies following falls in deliveries to Poland and Hungary, with the European Commission saying the latter was down 25 percent.

The Russian accusation - which followed the New Year's Day cutting of supplies for the Ukrainian market in a row over unpaid fines and levies imposed by Moscow - had prompted a sharp denial by Kiev, which said it was dipping into its own reserves to honour obligations to the EU.