Feb 23 (Reuters) – Ukrainian drones have struck a Russian pumping station serving the Druzhba oil pipeline set up to supply Moscow’s crude to eastern Europe, a Ukrainian security official said on Monday.
The overnight strike caused a fire at the Kaleykino station near the city of Almetyevsk in Russia’s Tatarstan region more than 1,200 km (750 miles) from the Russia-Ukraine border, added the official from Ukraine’s SBU security service.
The official gave no details of any broader impact on the pipeline.
The Almetyevsk administration said on Telegram that Russian air defences had brought down several drones over the Almetyevsk district, with falling debris igniting a fire in a local industrial zone. It did not mention the Druzhba pipeline or give any details of possible damage.
The attack, the latest Ukrainian assault on the route, risks exacerbating tensions between Ukraine and its neighbours Hungary and Slovakia. Both have accused Kyiv of trying to block oil flows through the pipeline to their refineries.
Shipments of Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia have been cut off since January 27, when Kyiv says a Russian drone strike hit pipeline equipment in Western Ukraine.
Despite Russia’s war in Ukraine, Kyiv had continued to transport Russian oil through the pipelines across its territory although it stopped the transit of Russian gas at the start of last year.
Hungary and Slovakia have threatened to cut off electricity supplies to Ukraine if the oil flow does not resume.
Electricity from Hungary and Slovakia accounts for about 70% of Ukraine’s imports. Half of Ukraine’s power generation has been destroyed or seriously damaged by Russian attacks.
Hungary blocked further EU sanctions on Moscow and a big loan for Kyiv on Monday, dealing a blow to Europe’s pro-Ukrainian consensus on the eve of the war’s fourth anniversary.
In a letter seen by Reuters, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban told European Council chief Antonio Costa the Druzhba outage was an “unprovoked act of hostility that undermines the energy security of Hungary” and vowed to block the loan until it was solved.
(Reporting by Tom Balmforth, writing by Anna Pruchnicka and Pavel Polityuk, Editing by Timothy Heritage and Andrew Heavens)
