Russia Says It Repelled Ukrainian Drone Attack on TurkStream Pipeline

Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning that it had repelled an attack by eight Ukrainian drones attempting to strike the Korenovskaya compressor station in the Krasnodar region.

According to the Defense Ministry statement, eight Ukrainian drones targeted the station over a span of two hours, all of which were shot down.

In addition to the attack in Krasnodar, the Defense Ministry said Ukraine had attacked six energy facilities in total over the previous day, including infrastructure in the Rostov and Kursk regions.

The Korenovskaya station is significant as it supplies gas to the ‘TurkStream’ pipeline, which runs under the Black Sea through Turkey. Since the beginning of this year, the pipeline has been used to supply gas to Central Europe—including Slovakia and Hungary—after Russian gas transit through Ukraine ceased on New Year’s Day, when Ukraine declined to renew a gas transit contract with Russia.

This is not the first time Ukraine has targeted the Korenovskaya station. Russia has reported multiple attacks on the facility this year. The latest incident comes as Russia claims it has been adhering to a 30-day ceasefire on attacks against energy infrastructure since March 18th, accusing Ukraine of refusing to honor the agreement with repeated strikes on Russian energy facilities since then.

As the TurkStream pipeline is currently the only route delivering Russian gas to Europe, it has become a strategic target for Ukraine and the West, who see potential disruptions as a way to completely halt Russian gas flows into Europe.

Russia has not indicated whether it will agree to extend the ceasefire, which is set to expire on April 18.