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Russia said on Monday it had downed nine Ukrainian drones that tried to attack part of the infrastructure of the TurkStream gas pipeline, through which Russian gas flows to Turkey and Europe.
The Russian defence ministry said the attack was aimed against a compressor station in the Krasnodar region of southern Russia, but the facility was working normally and there were no casualties.
Reuters could not independently confirm the incident, and there was no immediate comment from Ukraine.
TurkStream and Blue Stream, which run under the Black Sea to Turkey, are Russia's last routes for supplying pipeline gas to Europe, after Ukraine at the start of the year refused to renew a five-year transit deal that had allowed Russia to keep pumping gas across its territory despite the war between the two neighbours.
The Russian statement said falling fragments from one drone had caused minor damage to the building and equipment of a gas metering station at the compressor, but emergency teams had quickly repaired it.
The gas pipeline begins at the Russkaya (Russian) compressor station outside the city of Anapa and runs to Kıyıköy in Turkey, and then on to Europe. Compressor stations are used to stabilise the pressure and flow rate of gas.
From Turkey, TurkStream continues via Bulgaria, where it is called Balkan Stream. Currently TurkStream delivers gas to Serbia and Hungary. Bulgaria has stopped importing Russian gas but continues to transit it under contracts signed before Russia invaded Ukraine.
Ukraine is suspected for another attack on major Russian pipeline infrastructure. After mysterious explosions hit the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines near Denmark in September 2022, the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) allegedly told Belgian secret services that Ukraine could be responsible.
(Edited by Georgi Gotev)
