Gas pipelines are pictured at the Atamanskaya compressor station, facility of Gazprom's Power Of Siberia project outside the far eastern town of Svobodny, in Amur region, Russia November 29, 2019.
Gas pipelines are pictured at the Atamanskaya compressor station, facility of Gazprom's Power Of Siberia project outside the far eastern town of Svobodny, in Amur region, Russia November 29, 2019. Reuters / MAXIM SHEMETOV

Ukraine's gas system operator GTSOU said on Tuesday it would declare force majeure on the transportation of Russian gas through the Sokhranivka entry point, with flows stopping on May 11.

Ukraine has continued to be a major transit route for Russian gas to Europe even after Russia's invasion of the country on Feb. 24.

GTSOU said it could not carry out operations at the Novopskov gas compressor station at the site due to "the interference of the occupying forces in technical processes."

The Novopskov compressor station in the Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine has been occupied by Russian forces and separatist fighters since soon after the invasion began.

It is the first compressor in the Ukraine gas transit system in the Luhansk region, the transit route for around 32.6 million cubic metres of gas a day, or a third of the Russian gas going to Europe through Ukraine GTSOU said.

"To fulfill its transit obligations to European partners in full and following the terms of the agreement, it is possible to temporarily transfer unavailable capacity from the 'Sokhranivka' physical interconnection point to the 'Sudzha' physical interconnection point located in the territory controlled by Ukraine," GTSOU said in a statement.