Russia has accused the United States of seeking to sabotage TurkStream, the last pipeline carrying Russian gas exports into Europe.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov alleged at a news conference on Tuesday that Washington is encouraging “terrorist” attacks on his country’s energy infrastructure, and claimed there are plans to target TurkStream.
“The US does not tolerate competition in any sphere, including energy. They are recklessly endorsing terrorist activities aimed at undermining the energy stability of the European Union,” Lavrov said, according to Turkiye’s Anadolu news agency.
“They are encouraging their Ukrainian proxies to disable TurkStream following the sabotage of Nord Stream,” he added.
Russia said on Monday that it had downed nine Ukrainian drones that had tried to attack part of TurkStream’s infrastructure.
The pipeline is the last carrying Russian gas into the EU after Ukraine refused to renew a transit contract that expired at the end of 2024. The halt on that route has further disrupted EU unity on the war, with Slovakia claiming it will cause a crisis and threatening to block EU support for Kyiv.
Russia called the targeting of the pipeline, which runs beneath the Black Sea to Turkiye before sending gas onwards to Hungary and Austria, an “act of energy terrorism”.
Kyiv has not commented on the report yet.
Moscow has accused US-backed Ukrainian agents of sabotaging Nord Stream. The pipeline beneath the Baltic Sea blew up in September 2022.
Credit: aljazeera.com
