Russia’s state-controlled energy giant Gazprom said Wednesday that Ukrainian forces had repeatedly attacked infrastructure linked to two Black Sea gas pipelines supplying Turkey and southeastern Europe, in what Moscow described as an attempt to disrupt exports.
Gazprom said facilities tied to the TurkStream and Blue Stream pipelines in southern Russia had been targeted 12 times over the past two weeks.
Ukrainian officials have not yet commented on the claims.
The latest incident occurred Wednesday and involved a drone attack on the Russkaya compressor station in the Krasnodar region, Gazprom said.
The day before, drones targeted the Beregovaya and Kazachya compressor stations, also located in the Krasnodar region, the company said.
“These facilities are part of critical energy infrastructure and ensure the reliability of gas exports via the TurkStream and Blue Stream pipelines,” the company said, adding that all the attacks had been repelled and that the infrastructure continued operating.
Separately, Russia’s Defense Ministry said air defenses shot down 10 drones over the Russkaya station and 14 over the Beregovaya station overnight, alleging that the goal of the attack was to halt gas supplies to European consumers.
The pipelines are among the few remaining routes for Russian pipeline gas exports to Europe after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 severed most other export corridors.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the reported attacks as “very alarming” and said Russia had previously warned Turkey about possible sabotage attempts targeting the pipelines.
“The significance of these routes is difficult to overestimate in terms of the continent’s energy security,” Peskov said, particularly amid disruptions to global energy markets caused by the war involving Iran.
President Vladimir Putin said on Feb. 24 that Moscow had “operational information” suggesting Ukraine planned to sabotage the TurkStream and Blue Stream pipelines in the Black Sea.
“They cannot calm down and are trying to provoke something that would derail efforts to reach a diplomatic settlement,” Putin said at the time, referring to U.S.-led efforts to mediate an end to Russia's war on Ukraine.
Tensions in global energy markets have intensified since the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran has triggered sharp increases in oil and gas prices.
Putin said Monday that Russia was ready to supply oil and gas to European buyers, warning that a potential blockade of the Strait of Hormuz could halt Middle Eastern oil production and trigger inflation and industrial disruptions across Europe.
Read this story in Russian at The Moscow Times' Russian service.
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