ISTANBUL

Ukraine said that it has taken into account Kazakhstan’s concerns regarding infrastructure belonging to the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), which reported damage at its terminal in the Russian port city of Novorossiysk over the weekend.

Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhii Tykhyi said in a statement on Sunday that none of the Ukrainian side’s actions are directed against Kazakhstan or any other third party, stressing that operations are aimed at “repelling full-scale Russian aggression within the framework of the implementation of the right to self-defense guaranteed by Article 51 of the UN Charter.”

Tykhyi’s remarks came as Kazakhstan’s Foreign Ministry issued a protest earlier in the day over what it described as “another deliberate attack” on the CPC terminal, saying it expects Ukraine to take “effective measures to prevent similar incidents in the future.”

On Saturday, the consortium announced that unmanned boats damaged one of the terminal’s single-point moorings in a morning attack, adding that “loading and other operations” were stopped in accordance with an order issued by local Russian authorities.

Russia accused Ukraine of carrying out the attack on the Black Sea port a day later, with Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova calling for condemnation of the incident, arguing that it threatened “freedom of navigation in this waterway."

In his remarks, Tykhyi argued that Ukraine’s military is “systematically weakening” Russia's military-industrial potential and "depriving it of the means" to continue the war “within the framework of verified and strategically justified defense operations.”

“We emphasize once again that the only factor of destabilization and the cause of security challenges in the Black Sea region and beyond remains Russian aggression,” he said, also highlighting what he described as an “absence of previous statements by the Kazakh side condemning” Russian strikes in Ukraine.

Tykhyi added that Kyiv calls on all parties to focus their efforts on “forcing Russia to end” the more than three-and-a-half-year war as soon as possible.

“Finally, we confirm our unwavering respect for the Kazakh people and our determination to develop friendly and pragmatic relations with the Republic of Kazakhstan, which correspond to the level of historically strong ties between our peoples,” he added.