Russia accuses Ukraine of another attack on pipelines delivering fuel to Türkiye

MOSCOW

Russia on Thursday accused Ukraine of another nighttime drone attack on the Russkaya compressor station of the TurkStream gas pipeline.

According to a statement by the Russian energy company Gazprom, the new attack was successfully repelled.

"Tonight, between 00:40 and 01:00, the Russkaya compressor station, which ensures the reliability of export gas supplies via the TurkStream gas pipeline, was attacked by three fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles," the statement read.

Through the joint actions of the Russian Defense Ministry and mobile operational groups, the attack was repelled, and damage to the Gazprom facility was prevented, the company stated.

Russia supplies gas to Türkiye via two pipelines across the Black Sea. Blue Stream was commissioned in early 2003, with a designed capacity of 16 billion cubic meters per year and a total length of 1,213 kilometers (754 miles).

The TurkStream export gas pipeline consists of two lines: one intended for gas supplies to Turkish consumers, and the other for gas supply to countries in Southern and Southeastern Europe. The total capacity of TurkStream is 31.5 billion cubic meters, and its operation began in January 2020.

TurkStream remains the only active route for Russian gas supplies to the Europe direction following the cessation of transit through Ukraine. The starting point of TurkStream is the Russkaya compressor station, built near the city of Anapa.