Ukrainian officials on Tuesday confirmed Russian natural gas shipments were moving West, ending a week-long embargo, reported dpa. Gas line pressures had by early morning risen to export levels at Ukraine's southern Sudzha gas monitoring station, said Valentyn Zemliansky, spokesman for the Ukrainian natural gas monopoly Naftogaz Ukrainy. European observers at the station, among them a representative from the German energy conglomerate Ruhrgas, confirmed the delivery had taken place. Sudzha is the first checkpoint in Ukraine's gas transport system for Russian fuel sent onward to Moldova and other Balkan nations. Workers in Ukraine's gas transport system would require from 24 - 36 hours after an end to the Russian embargo, to raise pressure sufficiently on Ukraine's western borders to pump gas onwards to European Union nations, Naftogaz officials had said Monday. The Russian gas delivery came after two weeks of wrangling between Kiev and the Kremlin on natural gas delivery terms, and seven days after a total cut-off of Russian gas deliveries both to Ukraine and Europe via Ukraine's pipeline system. Shuttle diplomacy by EU officials brought an agreement on Sunday to restart deliveries to Europe, but Russia and Ukraine have yet to resolve a host of issues concerning gas deliveries, among them contract terms for Russian gas moving to and through Ukraine for 2009.
