KIEV, July 3 - Ukraine completed repair of a damaged section of a natural gas pipeline that carries Russian gas to markets in the European Union, the Emergency Situations Ministry reported Thursday.

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 village in the Poltava region.