Russia accuses Ukraine of botched attack on major pipeline

Russia said on Saturday it had shot down three Ukrainian drones targeting a major gas pipeline carrying Russian supplies to Europe via Turkey, in the second such incident this year.

The attack was aimed at the Russkaya gas compressor station in the southern Krasnodar region, an element of the TurkStream pipeline network, Moscow said.

Ukraine attempted to hit the same compressor station on January 11, it added

“All three Ukrainian drones were shot down at a safe distance,” the Russian defence ministry said.

Kyiv has targeted Russian energy infrastructure throughout the three-year conflict, part of what it calls fair retribution for debilitating attacks on its own energy grid by Moscow since February 2022.

TurkStream runs for 930 kilometres (580 miles) under the Black Sea from the Russian resort city of Anapa to Kiyikoy in northwestern Turkey, then connects to overground pipelines that run up through the Balkans to Europe.

The Russian foreign ministry said the latest attack took place “on the night of February 27-28” but the Russian military did not announce it until Saturday.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov discussed the attack with Turkish and Hungarian counterparts in separate phone calls, it added.

Moscow’s allegation — which Kyiv has not commented on — came hours after US President Donald Trump berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a televised confrontation at the White House that threw Washington’s relationship with Kyiv in doubt.