MYKOLAIV, Ukraine, Aug 8 (Reuters) - The transit route

for Russian gas deliveries to Europe via Ukraine is still

functioning, Ukrainian energy minister German Galushchenko said

on Thursday after reports of hostilities at the Sudzha gas

transit station.

He said Ukraine had not been contacted by Russia about the

situation with gas transit.

Russia said on Wednesday it was fighting intense battles

against Ukrainian forces that had penetrated its border near the

major natural gas transmission hub at Sudzha, in one of the

largest incursions into Russian territory since the war began.

The Sudzha gas transfer and measuring stations in the Kursk

region of Russia is the only entry point for Russian natural gas

into the Ukrainian gas transmission system for onward transport

to Europe.

Ukraine's gas transmission operator told Reuters earlier on

Thursday that Russian natural gas continued to transit to Europe

via Ukraine normally.

Later, the operator said Russia's Gazprom planned

to ship about 41.7 million cubic meters of gas via Ukraine on

Friday, against 37.25 mcm planned on Thursday.

In May 2022, at the beginning of the Russian invasion of

Ukraine, the Ukrainian transit operator stopped transporting gas

on an alternative branch line through the transit point of

Sokhranivka close to the Luhansk region in the east.

Ukraine said Russian forces had started taking gas

transiting through Ukraine and sending it to two Russia-backed

separatist regions in the country's east.

After the closure of Sokhranivka, transit volumes fell by a

quarter as Gazprom said it was unable to divert volumes to

Sudzha.

The agreement on Russian gas transit to Europe through

Ukraine expires in 2024, and Kyiv has said it has no intention

of extending it or concluding a new deal.