The Russian gas company Gazprom on Wednesday "for technical reasons" reduced supplies to Germany corresponding to a fifth of the capacity of the Nord Stream pipeline, data published on the company's official website indicate.

The reduction of Russian fuel flow started at 09:00 Moscow time (07:00 Maputo time) and according to the information on the portal the daily supply volume to Germany, through Nord Stream, will be 33 million cubic meters.

According to the German federal network agency (Bundesbetzagentur), the cut-off as of this Wednesday is a "war strategy" on the part of Moscow and rejected the technical justification cited by Gazprom.

Moscow's explanations about the 20% (sending capacity) reduction "are not realistic," Bundesnetzagentur head Klaus Muller told Deustchlandfunk radio.

The German authority confirmed that the expected reduction is taking place and that it is "half" of what was being supplied in recent months.

Specifically, 1.28 cubic meters of gas per hour have been flowing since 07:00 (Maputo time), as Gazprom had announced, justifying the reduction with maintenance work as well as failures in a turbine.

The outage comes after service resumed last week after 10 days of total interruption due, according to Moscow, to maintenance services.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Economy Minister Robert Habeck said that there are "no obstacles" of a technical nature to the regular flow of Russian gas through Nord Stream.

Habeck has accused Moscow of using gas supplies as a "weapon of war."

Last February, when Russia's new military campaign against Ukraine began, Russian supplies accounted for 55% of the total gas imports Germany received, a figure that by the end of June was down to 26%.

Habeck maintains the goal of achieving by November 1 the storage of 95% of deposits to ensure energy security during the next winter. (Lusa, via DN)