Ukraine's gas interconnector functional after Russian strike, operator says

Gas supplies continued on Thursday through the Orlovka interconnector in southern Ukraine which was attacked by Russian drones on Wednesday, the Ukrainian gas transmission operator said.

Ukrainian officials said on Wednesday Russia had struck a gas pumping station in Ukraine's southern Odesa region used to import LNG from the US and Azerbaijan, undermining preparations for winter.

"Deliveries are made in the same manner as before," an official from the operator told Reuters on Thursday.

The operator said 0.42 million cubic metres of gas were scheduled to be pumped through Orlovka, located near the border with Romania, on Thursday.

Orlovka is a part of a route connecting Greek LNG terminals with Ukrainian gas storage facilities via the Transbalkan gas pipeline.

Kyiv has called the route "extremely important", as it provides access to LNG from Greek and Turkish terminals, Azerbaijani and Romanian pipeline gas and, potentially, Bulgarian offshore gas.

Last month, Ukraine pumped a small test volume of Azerbaijani gas through the Transbalkan route for the first time and announced plans to significantly increase gas imports from Azerbaijani energy firm SOCAR.

(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk; Editing by Jan Harvey)