Ukrainian engineers scrambled on Sunday to repair a gas pipeline damaged by Russian forces, halting supplies to parts of southeastern Ukraine, the Donetsk region governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said.
Engineers had shut down the pipe to prevent gas from leaking, he said, adding that gas flow downstream was now dropping and would stop completely later in the day.
Kyrylenko said that every location between the town of Vuhledar in the Donetsk region and the port of Berdyansk would be left without gas while the damage is repaired. The distance between the two towns is 117 km (73 miles).
"We are working hard to remove this problem as quickly as possible," Kyrylenko said.
