Russian gas exports crossing through Ukraine were halted Wednesday with the expiration of a transit agreement.

The development will force some European nations to find alternative sources of gas with the interruption of the decades-old route.

Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine had already prompted many in the European Union to cut their dependence on Russian gas.

“We stopped the transit of Russian gas. This is a historic event. Russia is losing its markets, it will suffer financial losses. Europe has already made the decision to abandon Russian gas,” Ukraine’s energy minister, German Galushchenko, said in a statement.

Russian gas giant Gazprom said it lost the “technical and legal right” to send its gas through Ukraine.

Russia is still able to export gas to Turkey and central European nations such as Hungary and Serbia.

Moldova’s government, meanwhile, has ordered sharp cuts in energy consumption to deal with its loss of Russian supply.

The European Union played down the impact on its member states, saying, “The European gas infrastructure is flexible enough to provide gas of non-Russian origin” to central and eastern Europe.

Some information for this report was provided by Agence France-Presse and Reuters.