Ukraine in the period from July 1 to July 27, 2015 imported 471 million cubic meters (mcm) of natural gas from Europe (only from Slovakia), the press service of public joint-stock company Ukrtransgaz reported on Tuesday.

The press service said that gas supplies from Slovakia to Ukraine as of Tuesday morning totaled 24.5 mcm.

If the volume of gas imports remains at this volume in the last couple of days of July Ukraine will import around 570 mcm of natural gas less than in June 2015.

In June 2015, Ukraine imported 789 mcm of gas from Europe, including 716 mcm from Slovakia and 73 million cubic meters from Hungary.

Earlier Energy and Coal Industry Minister Volodymyr Demchyshyn said that Ukraine plans to boost natural gas imports from Europe to 40 mcm a day from August 1, from 23-24 mcm a day at present.

Ukraine expects to be pumping 53-55 mcm into underground storage by August 1, in line with the plans to boost imports.

In January-June 2015 Ukraine imported 6.3 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas from Europe and 3.7 bcm from Russia.

Ukrtransgaz, which is 100% owned by Naftogaz Ukrainy, operates a system of trunk pipelines and 12 underground storage facilities in Ukraine.