EU finalizes deal for natural gas monitors; talks continue

MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) - The European Union has finalized a deal on sending monitors to supervise supplies of Russian gas through Ukraine, an EU spokesman said Friday.

"Conditions for sending the monitors are now and place and gas should start to flow immediately without further delay," Ferran Darradellas told CNN.

The deal raised hopes that millions of Europeans would soon have their gas switched on again, two days after the Russian supplies flowing through Ukraine to the continent were shut off amid a dispute between Russian energy giant Gazprom and Ukraine's state-run gas company, Nafrogaz.