Moscow Claims Ukraine Attempted an Attack on TurkStream Gas Pipeline in Russia

Ukraine this weekend attempted a drone attack on a compressor station in southwest Russia which is part of the infrastructure of the TurkStream gas pipeline—the last remaining route for Russian gas flows to Europe, Russia’s Defense Ministry said.

TurkStream is a pipeline connecting southern Russia to Turkey under the Black Sea and then delivering gas from Turkey to Europe. Hungary is the EU customer that receives Russian gas via TurkStream.

The Russian Defense Ministry said that Ukraine had sent nine drones to hit the Russkaya compressor station in the southwestern Russian region of Krasnodar with the aim of halting gas deliveries to European countries.

All drones have been shot down, Russia said, adding that the compressor station was not damaged and there were no injuries or casualties among the personnel or civilian population. As a result of falling fragments of one shot-down drone, the building and equipment of a gas metering station at the compressor sustained minor damage, which was quickly fixed by Gazprom’s emergency response team on the site, the Defense Ministry added.

The compressor station continues to supply natural gas to the TurkStream pipeline as usual and there have been no malfunctions, Russia said.

After the end of the Russian flows via Ukraine, TurkStream remains the last gas route of Russia’s natural gas to south and southeast Europe via Turkey.

On December 31, the supply deal for Russian gas to Europe transiting Ukraine expired, and deliveries stopped on January 1, after Ukraine said it would not pursue an extension of the transit agreement.

At 0500 GMT on New Year’s Day, Gazprom halted pipeline deliveries, and the last remaining EU members that were still receiving gas from Russia until December 31 – Austria, Slovakia, and Hungary – lost this source of supply.

Hungary will continue to receive Russian gas via the TurkStream gas pipeline via Turkey and the Balkans, while Austria and Slovakia have arranged to have natural gas from other sources supplied.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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