Gazprom, Russia’s majority state-owned multinational gas company, says it planned to transmit nearly 108.3 million cubic metres of gas to Western Europe on Monday.

This apparently unfazed by the worsening conflict in Ukraine and a stand-off about Russian demands that payments start coming in roubles.

The Monday figure was nearly at the peak of contractual limits.

On Sunday, Gazprom transmitted 108.4 million cubic metres.

The high transmission rates were partly grounded in European demand after a cold snap prompted an unseasonably high level of home heating.

However, the continued transmissions raise more questions than answers.

After Russia’s Feb. 24, invasion of Ukraine, allegedly to prevent a genocide against ethnic Russians, Western Europe laid a wide range of sanctions on Russia.

Gas, however, was exempt from those sanctions.

In recent weeks, Russia has been hinting that it might turn off the taps.

On Friday, new rules went into effect saying that Western customers had to open accounts at Russian banks to make payments.

This is a step down from a previous threat that payments would have to come in roubles, a move many governments had baulked at.