MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia said on Monday it had downed nine Ukrainian drones that tried to attack part of the infrastructure of the TurkStream gas pipeline, through which Russian gas flows to Turkey and Europe, and called the attack an “act of energy terrorism”.
The Russian defence ministry said the attack was aimed against a compressor station in the Krasnodar region of southern Russia, but the facility was working normally and there were no casualties.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted by Russia’s TASS news agency later on Monday as calling the attack an act of energy terrorism. He said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller had discussed the alleged incident with their Turkish counterparts.
Peskov called it a new link in a chain of actions that he said were dangerous for consumers and included explosions, the preparation of explosions, and sabotage of the Nord Stream pipeline between Russia and Europe.
Reuters could not confirm that Ukrainian drones had tried to attack pipeline infrastructure in Russia, which sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine almost three years ago.
Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Ukrainian officials have previously denied their country’s involvement in explosions which damaged the Nord Stream pipeline.
TurkStream and Blue Stream, which run under the Black Sea to Turkey, are Russia’s last routes for supplying pipeline gas to Europe, after Ukraine at the start of the year refused to renew a five-year transit deal that had allowed Russia to keep pumping gas across its territory despite the war between the two neighbours.
The Russian statement said falling fragments from one drone had caused minor damage to the building and equipment of a gas metering station at the compressor, but emergency teams had quickly repaired it.
The gas pipeline begins at the Russkaya compressor station outside the city of Anapa and runs to Kıyıköy in Turkey, and then on to Europe. Compressor stations are used to stabilise the pressure and flow rate of gas.
(This story has been refiled to remove the reference to Monday in paragraph 5)
(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; Writing by Lucy Papachristou and Maxim Rodionov; Editing by Mark Trevelyan and Timothy Heritage)
