KIEV, June 24 - Ukraine will repair by early July a damaged section of a natural gas pipeline that carries Russian gas to markets in the European Union, an official from the national energy company Naftogaz Ukrayiny said Tuesday.

The section of the Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhgorod pipeline, which delivers gas from Russia via Ukraine to Slovakia and to consumers in the Czech Republic and Germany, was hit by an explosion on June 17 near Lokhvytsia in the Poltava region.