MOSCOW: Russia accused Ukraine on Monday of launching a drone attack on the infrastructure of a major gas pipeline that carries Russian supplies to Europe via Turkiye.

The allegation — which Kyiv has not commented on — comes amid an escalating energy row between the two countries, almost three years after Russia launched its full-scale military offensive.

Kyiv halted the transit of Russian gas via Ukraine on Jan 1 — ending decades of energy cooperation that had brought billions of dollars to both countries — in a bid to cut off revenue for Moscow’s army.

The United States last week rolled out fresh sanctions on Russia’s oil sector. The Russian defence ministry said Ukraine had fired nine attack drones on Saturday at a gas compressor station in the village of Gai-Kodzor, near Russia’s southern coast on the Black Sea.

The site is across from the annexed Crimean peninsula — heavily targeted by Kyiv throughout the three-year conflict.

Published in Dawn, January 14th, 2025