MOSCOW. Jan 7 (Interfax) - Gazprom (RTS: GAZP) has made an official statement saying that gas shipments to European consumers have been halted through the fault of Ukraine, and urged the Ukrainian side to urgently compensate the gas undersupplied to consumers.

"Gazprom did not halt gas for European consumers flowing towards Ukraine. Over the past 24 hours, Ukraine has illegally diverted another 21 million cubic meters of Russian gas, intended for Europe. Overall, since the start of the year, Ukraine has stolen more than 86 million cubic meters of gas from Gazprom alone. In addition to this, the company RusUkrEnergo has not been receiving 25 million cubic meters of gas daily from Ukraine's underground storage facilities," Gazprom said in a statement on Wednesday.

Gazprom urges the Ukrainian side to compensate these amounts to European consumers immediately, the company said.

"On its part, Gazprom continues shipping additional amounts of gas to Europe across Belarus, via the Blue Stream gas pipeline, using its reserves in the Europe's underground storage facilities, and conducting operations on the spot market," the company said.