Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Monday that natural gas from northern Russia will start flowing through the Nord Stream pipeline straight to Germany this week.

The Baltic Sea pipeline known as Nord Stream connects the city of Vyborg in northwestern Russia to the German port town of Greifswald, bypassing Ukraine.

There have been numerous price disputes between Moscow and Kyiv over natural gas deliveries to Ukraine, whose pipelines serve other European nations.

In 2009, a disagreement between the two nations cut natural gas supplies to western Europe in the middle of winter, leaving many without heat.

Nord Stream is a twin pipeline system. The first line, which Mr. Putin said would be filled with gas on Tuesday, can deliver about 27 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas per year.

Nord Stream is a joint project of Russia’s Gazprom, Germany’s BASF SE/Wintershall Holding GmbH, E.ON Ruhrgas, the Netherlands’ Gasunie and GDF SUEZ.