The European Union is developing a plan to completely stop importing Russian gas, despite concerns from Hungary and Slovakia, said European Commission spokesperson Anna-Kaisa Itkonen during a briefing.

The governor of Russia's Astrakhan region told residents not to panic on Wednesday after its main city, close to a huge gas chemical complex that was attacked by Ukrainian drones this week, was enveloped in a cloud of natural gas.

The dissolution of the Soviet Union greatly affected this decades-old gas business. Russian gas now had to transit an independent Ukraine. Even so, Russia continued to increase its exports to Europe, with the exported volume rising from 110 billion cubic meters in 1990 to 175 billion in 2020.

Video released on social media shows Russia’s Astrakhan gas plant up in flames after Ukraine struck major energy facilities in southern Russia with dozens of drones on Monday (February 3), Russian and Ukrainian officials said.