Russia says it will not resume natural-gas flows via a key pipeline to Europe until the 'collective West' lifts sanctions against the country

Russia's natural-gas supplies to Europe will not be resumed until the "collective West" lifts sanctions against Moscow, said the Kremlin.

The sanctions imposed on our country by Western states caused problems with gas supply, according to the Kremlin spokesman.

There are attempts to shift responsibility to us. The situation has reached the point where it is now, and we insist that the collective West is to blame.

According to the outlet, Peskov said thatNord Stream 1 would resume its supply to Europe if sanctions are lifted.

Natural-gas flows via theNord Stream 1 were slowed for a few months by Russian state gas giant Gazprom. The company and the Kremlin have always said that the gas flows slowed due to technical reasons.

The benchmark Dutch natural-gas futures went up as much as 34% in one day.

Most of Europe's natural gas is transported via the Russian system. More than one-third of the fuel that Russia exported to Europe came from theNord Stream 1 line.

There are only two networks of natural gas that are still running after the shutdown of the Nord Stream 1 line.

The commodities strategy head at ING Bank wrote on Monday that the market would become more nervous about flows via Ukraine.