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

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.

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’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 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.

Ukraine's gas transit operator said Russia had not nominated any gas flows for Jan. 1 through the Ukrainian pipeline to Europe as of 1500 GMT on Tuesday, hours ahead of the expiration of a five-year contract between Gazprom and Ukraine's Naftogaz.

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.