President Zelensky said his country would not allow Russia to "earn additional billions on our blood".

Russia’s once-dominant gas supply to Europe via Ukraine, which flowed for decades, is set to end on New Year’s Day with the collapse of a contract between the two warring countries that paid out billions to Moscow in gas revenue and to Kyiv in transit fees.

Russian natural gas flows to Europe across Ukraine appear poised to halt Wednesday, after a transit deal expires, raising the stakes for the continent’s energy security as it draws heavily on reserves.

Russia and the former Soviet Union spent half a century building up a major share of the European gas market, which the war in Ukraine has all but destroyed.

Russian gas supplies sent via Ukraine to Europe for more than 40 years are scheduled to end on January 1 after Ukraine's Naftogaz refused to renew its latest five-year transit deal with Russia's Gazprom.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico urged the European Commission to address the looming halt of Russian gas transit through Ukraine, saying the economic impact on the European Union will far outweigh the effect on Russia.

Russian gas flows through Ukraine are set to stop on Wednesday when a transit deal between the two countries expires in the wake of Moscow’s full-scale invasion. The pipeline was one of the last two routes still carrying Russian gas to Europe nearly three years into the full-scale war.

MOSCOW >> Russian energy company Gazprom said it would pump a reduced volume of gas to Europe via Ukraine on Tuesday, the last day before the expiry of a deal that had kept the gas flowing throughout nearly three years of war.