RT reported that on January 13, the Russian Ministry of Defense said that Ukrainian forces launched nine explosive-laden drones at the Russkaya gas compressor station on the TurkStream gas pipeline, located in the Krasnodar region, southern Russia.
The TurkStream and Blue Stream pipelines, which run under the Black Sea to Türkiye, are the last pipelines carrying Russian gas to Europe after Ukraine refused to extend a gas transit agreement through its territory earlier this year.
The attack, believed to be aimed at cutting off gas supplies to Europe, was largely thwarted by Russian forces.
“Any attack on energy infrastructure is worrying,” Anna-Kaisa Itkonen, spokeswoman for the European Commission on Energy, Climate and Environment, said at a press conference on January 13. She said the EU was closely monitoring the situation but had not yet had any specific contact with Ukraine about the incident.
TurkStream is a major pipeline that began operations in 2020, with an annual capacity of 31.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas. The pipeline carries gas from Russia to Türkiye and European countries such as Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Greece.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, a UAV crashed near the Russkaya gas compressor station, causing minor damage. However, the incident was quickly resolved and there was no disruption to supplies.
Writing on Facebook, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto stressed that TurkStream has been a reliable gas transit route for many years, and demanded respect for the safety and continuity of the route.
Meanwhile, Russia accused Ukraine of carrying out “energy terrorism.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Kiev had repeatedly tried to sabotage the TurkStream pipeline to exert political pressure and damage energy supplies to Europe.
Tensions over Russian gas supplies through Ukraine have escalated since Kiev refused to renew a contract to transit gas through its territory last year, drawing strong criticism from consumer countries such as Hungary and Slovakia, who accused Ukraine of causing the energy crisis.
