The Sudzha gas measurement station in the region of Kursk through which Russian gas was supplied to Europe, it was attacked in the early hours of Friday, causing a large column of fire. He Russian Defense Ministry blamed to the armed forces of Ukraine of the attack. He Ukrainian army -What the station occupied during an offensive in the Kursk region in August 2024- rejected the facts, accusing Russia of promoting a attack of false flag In its own territory to torpedo the truce in the treasury, which theoretically had to safeguard at least the energy infrastructure of both sides.
During the conversations with the US president, Donald Trump, on March 18, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, supported the end of the attacks on energy supplies, but not a cessation of the total fire on the entire front line, as Washington had previously proposed. Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski said the same day that he would support the proposition to stop attacks on energy infrastructure.
The Russian Ministry of Defense reported that During the night of 20 to 21 the Ukrainian army “flew deliberately” The Sudzha gas measurement station, in the Kursk region. The regulation and measurement station has the function filter natural gas, regulate and stabilize supply pressure y measure the amount supplied. The press secretary of the Russian President, Dimitri Peskov, told the journalists on Friday that Vladimir Putin’s order to refrain from attacking Ukrainian energy facilities is still in force despite the actions of the Ukraine armed forces.
The Russian investigation committee opened a criminal case under the “terrorist act” article in relation to the explosion of the Sudzha gas distribution station. For kyiv such statements “had no foundation.” The head of the Center for the fight against the misinformation of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Andriy Kovalenko, described the incident as “one of the first information operations against Ukraine with accusations of disturbing the high the fire, which Russia itself has not respected from the first day.”
The statement of the Russian part suggests that Ukraine exploded the station in the early hours of the morning. The alleged authors: Ukrainian soldiers who retired from the Kursk region. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, kyiv carried out a “deliberate provocation” that “must be considered in the context of the recent attacks on Russia’s energy infrastructure to discredit the peace initiatives of the US President.”
General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine described as “unfounded” the accusations of an attack on the Sudzha station. The Ukrainian armed forces claim that Russian army itself fired artillery against the station. “The Russians continue to perpetrating numerous falsifications and They try to deceive the international community. We ask them to only trust official sources, verify the information and do not succumb to manipulation, “added the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Meanwhile, they continue the fighting in the Kursk region, where the Russian forces have advanced at an unprecedented rate in recent weeks in an attempt to expel Ukrainian troops in their territory.
The attack on the station was initially reported by Russian and pro -government channels in Telegram, which blamed the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Ukraine is “breaking the energy truce,” said several Russian propagandists, as well as the Telegram Mash and Shot channels.
The Sudzha gas measurement station was the prelude to the Urangoy-Pomary-Uzhgorod gas pipeline to Ukrainethat as a transit country redistributed it to Europein this case to the countries of the It is. It was part of a network built at the time of the Soviet Union that extended in five different runners from Siberia through the Russian region of Kursk and from there to Ukraine, passing through Sudzha. It is assumed that by one of those old giant pipes and since last year, the Russians passed in their mouth to the Ukrainian forces that ventured into Kursk.
The Urangoy-Pomary-Uzhgorodha carried the Slovakia gas for decades, and from there to Austria, Czech Republic and Hungary. He January 1 of this year the supply was interruptedbecause Ukraine refused to renew the Transito Agreement, which expired on December 31 of last year, reports Carmen Valero from Berlin.
Russia, however, has managed to keep supplying Energy until Hungary through the alternative gas pipeline of the Black Sea and Vía Serbia. The rest of the countries affected by kyiv’s decision were connected to the European Gas pipeline network and buys liquefied gas. The interruption of the transit of Ukraine has not had an impact too strong. The situation is different in the Republic of Moldova, which is between Ukraine and Romania. The production of electricity depended almost entirely on the supply of Russian gas, so the Government declared the state of emergency last December.