Ukrainian officials on August 6 accused Russia of attacking a gas pumping station in the Odessa region of southern Ukraine.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said the gas infrastructure was attacked in the village of Novosilske on the border between Ukraine and Romania, where there is an Orlovka transit station where Ukraine receives gas via the Transbalkan gas pipeline.
This is a deliberate blow to our heating season preparations, President Zelensky stressed.
Russia's TASS news agency quoted information from the Russian Ministry of Defense confirming the attack on Ukraine's gas transport system.
Ukraine faces a serious gas shortage since a series of Russian missile attacks this year, significantly reducing domestic production.
The Ukrainian Energy Ministry said in a statement that the Ukrainian gas transit station attacked by Russia was used in the route connecting Greece's LNG port warehouses to Ukrainian gas storage facilities via the Transbalkan gas pipeline.
The Orlovka Station has been used to transport LNG from the US and test the receipt of Azerbaijani gas.
"This is a Russian attack that is entirely aimed at civil infrastructure, deliberately targeting the energy sector and at the same time, relations with Azerbaijan, the US and its partners in Europe, as well as the normal life of Ukrainians and all European people," the Ukrainian Energy Ministry said in a statement.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev is expected to meet US President Donald Trump in Washington this week.
The Odessa region governor had reported an attack on the region's key gas pipeline on August 6.
Ukrainian energy officials did not say whether gas would continue to be pumped through the attacked pipeline. According to the plan, 0.4 million cubic meters of gas were pumped through Orlovka on August 6.
Last month, Ukraine tested for the first time a small amount of Azerbaijani gas pumping through the Transbalkan pipeline and announced plans to significantly increase gas imports from Azerbaijan's SOCAR energy company.
Ukraine views the pipeline as "extremely important" because it gives Kiev access to liquefied natural gas from Greek and Turkish LNG warehouses, gas from the pipelines of Azerbaijan and Romania, and access to Bulgaria's offshore gas.
