Russia accused Ukraine on Monday of having unsuccessfully attacked from the air a gas distribution station on the TurkStream gas pipeline, the only route for transporting Russian gas to Europe since the transit was stopped on January 1 via the Ukrainian territory.
The energy sector is a key battlefield in the conflict: for almost three years, Moscow has been largely cut off from key revenues, the European gas market having largely closed in retaliation for the assault and the sabotage of Nord Stream in the Baltic Sea in September 2022.
A damaged building and equipment
“The kyiv regime attempted to attack with nine drones” a gas distribution station of the TurkStream gas pipeline in the Krasnodar region, in southwest Russia, the Russian army said in a statement.
All the devices were shot down and the operation of the compression station located in the town of Gaï-Kodzor was not hampered, but the debris from one of the intercepted drones slightly damaged a building and some equipment, according to this source. .
Ukraine had not commented on these assertions as of the morning.
31.5 billion m3 of gas per year
According to the Russian army, the aim of this unprecedented attack was to “suspend gas deliveries to European countries” via TurkStream, an underwater infrastructure in the Black Sea.
Inaugurated in 2020, the TurkStream gas pipeline, capable of transporting 31.5 billion m3 of gas each year, is made up of two parallel tubes of approximately 930 km which connect Anapa, in the Krasnodar region in Russia, to Kiyiköy in Turkey (northwest).
From there, it allows Russia and its gas giant Gazprom to supply southeastern and southern Europe, particularly Hungary and countries in the Balkans.
Only operational gas pipeline between Russia and Europe
It has become all the more important for Moscow and its last European customers as gas transit via Ukrainian territory has been stopped since January 1 and the expiration of a Russian-Ukrainian contract which dated before the Russian assault. against Ukraine. Since then, TurkStream has been the only operational gas pipeline linking Russia and Europe.
-The cessation of this transit via Ukraine worries several countries in eastern Europe, including Slovakia, still very dependent on Russian gas.
Slovakia and Hungary, supporters of Moscow
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who went to Moscow to meet Vladimir Putin in December, to the great dismay of kyiv, warned in early January of “drastic” consequences for his country and the EU.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced on social networks on Sunday evening the position of Robert Fico, a critic alongside Hungarian Viktor Orban of Western sanctions against the Russian economy.
New sanctions against Russia
Alongside kyiv in the conflict against Moscow, the European Union says it wants to free itself from all natural gas coming from Russia by 2027.
In the meantime, the Twenty-Seven are still purchasing, and in significant quantities, Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG), imported by LNG tankers, particularly from the territories in the far north of Russia.
They also buy LNG from the United States. The latter announced on Friday new sanctions targeting more than 180 Russian ships as well as major oil companies, including Gazprom Neft and Surgutneftegas.
Belgium
