The Russia Ukraine war continues to draw other nations in its long drawn quagmire. Russian gas pipelines which provide for the supply of a number of European nations have been constantly under threat. The NordStream pipeline had been destroyed in 2022 with a lot of the suspicions falling on Ukraine. Now Russian air defenses have intercepted three drones near a key compressor station in Krasnodar Region servicing the TurkStream gas pipeline, in what the Defense Ministry in Moscow has described as another Ukrainian sabotage attempt.
The TurkStream pipeline is a crucial supply line that delivers Russian natural gas to Turkish customers and several European countries, including Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Greece. Operational since January 2020, it has an annual capacity of 31.5 billion cubic meters. It has become crucial for the aforementioned nations to rely on the pipeline, so as to maintain the gas prices and stable economies.
Late last month, Reuters reported that deliveries of Russian natural gas via the TurkStream had reached a historic high, with preliminary calculations indicating that supplies exceeded 50 million cubic meters per day in January 2025. After Ukraine decided in late 2024 to terminate its five-year gas transit contract with Russian energy giant Gazprom, the TurkStream has been the sole route supplying Russian gas to southern and southeastern Europe.
An attack on the same jeopardizes the stability and economies of a number of nations and also the region at large, something Kiev does not seem to be too bothered about. Ukrainian authorities had been earlier left agitated by Hungary and other nations decision to continue buying Russian gas. Ukraine claimed they were prioritizing their economies over the lives of Ukrainians. The concerned countries maintain that for them the economy and stability of their own nations and populace is important and they cannot gamble on that for Ukraine’s benefit.
Ukraine Attack on TurkStream
Meanwhile in a statement on Saturday, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that “on the night of February 28, against the backdrop of [Ukrainian leader] Vladimir Zelensky’s visit to Washington, the Kiev regime carried out yet another attempt to attack the Russkaya gas compressor station in the village of Gaikodzor with the help of three fixed-wing UAVs.” Moscow suggested that behind the facade of peace talks the Ukraine forces took the opportunity to disrupt the delivery of Russian gas to European nations.
According to the ministry, all three incoming drones were destroyed some distance away from the facility, with the energy infrastructure sustaining no damage and continuing normal operations. Commenting on the incident at the time, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov accused Ukraine of engaging in acts of “energy terrorism.”
This has not been the first time the crucial pipeline has been targeted. The Russkaya Compressor Station serves as the point of exit on Russian soil for gas delivered via the TurkStream. In January, the ministry reported a similar incident that involved nine kamikaze drones, which were all intercepted. However, debris from explosions caused minor damage to the gas compressor station, which was swiftly repaired by the facility’s personnel.
During a phone call on Saturday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov asked his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan, to exert influence on the Ukrainian leadership to dissuade Kiev from attempting to “carry out terrorist attacks against civilian infrastructure.” Fidan said Ankara would take all necessary measures in this respect, according to a readout released by the Russian Foreign Ministry.
Response in Hungary
Türkiye confirmed the attack several days later, while Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, whose country is among the recipients serviced by the TurkStream, said Budapest views any attempts to sabotage its energy supply as undermining its national sovereignty.
“The Turkish Stream pipeline is the guarantee of Hungary’s natural gas supply security; therefore, any potential disruption would seriously jeopardize our energy security,” Szijjarto wrote on Facebook. “Energy security is a matter of sovereignty, and therefore this type of attack should be considered an attack on sovereignty.”
The Hungarian minister also called on the European Commission to clarify its stance on the matter, reminding it of its recent assurance that Ukraine would not target EU-bound infrastructure. Since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022, Moscow has accused Kiev of targeting the pipeline on multiple occasions.
So far the pipeline is continuing to function as usual and the attacks have been thwarted, however it is clear that Ukraine will continue to target the gas pipelines as it sees that damaging them would mean a hit on the Russian economy whereby delinking it from Europe. However Kiev fails to take into account that such action would damage the European nations far more than Russia, the same has been expressed by the concerned nations on a number of occasions.
Although looking at the stance Zelensky has maintained in his visit to the USA and his recent comments that peace is “far far away” it is clear that Ukraine is in no mood to find a solution to the protracted war and such attacks will continue. The NordStream has already been destroyed if the TurkStream is also taken down, the effects would truly be far reaching and the consequences could be devastating.
