GRTgaz, a French gas transmission company, reported today that Russian gas flow from Germany to France has been stopped.

The company explained that it had not received any gas from Russia through the pipeline since June 15, two days ago.

Explaining that France will have no problems with gas supplies in the summer, the company said that 56 percent of the capacity of France’s storage facilities is full, which is 19 percent more than in mid-March.

Earlier this week, Russia’s Gazprom warned that it would drastically reduce gas supplies to Europe due to technical issues with Western sanctions.

The company stated that the German company Siemens Energy, the equipment operator, could not return the repaired gas pumping units of the “Nord Stream” pipeline from a maintenance center in Canada due to the Russian sanctions.

France supplies about 17 percent of its gas through a network connected to Germany, which is heavily dependent on Russian energy supplies.

European importers of Russian gas called Gazprom’s move “political” and condemned it.

They say the Kremlin is using its energy to punish EU member states for backing Ukraine.

Russian gas supplies to Europe via the Stream rolling pipeline have fallen by 60 percent this week, pushing up gas prices in Europe.

The wholesale price of Dutch gas, the European index, rose to more than $ 1,500 per 1,000 cubic meters for the first time since April yesterday.

Russia’s energy giant Gazprom said on Wednesday that it would cut supplies by almost a third after reducing the volume of gas shipped to Germany via the Nord Stream pipeline on Tuesday.

Gazprom issued the statement hours after German Economy Minister Robert Hobek said the previous cut (Tuesday) was a political move and escalated tensions with Moscow.

In the early hours of Wednesday, German Economy Minister Robert Hobek said the move was clearly “politically motivated” and not the result of technical problems, according to Deutsche Welle.