Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Russia expects Turkey to take all possible measures to prevent what she called “terrorist” attacks from Kyiv on crucial civilian infrastructure in the wake of a recent such attempt on the TurkStream gas pipeline, the state-run Russian TASS news agency reported.
“We expect all interested parties with significant influence on the Kiev regime, mainly Turkey, to undertake all possible measures to prevent such attempts which grossly violate the security of civilian infrastructure in the future,” she said at a news conference on Thursday.
Russia on Monday accused Ukraine of launching a drone attack on the TurkStream gas pipeline infrastructure, which carries Russian gas to Europe via Turkey.
Moscow’s defense ministry said in a statement that the Kyiv regime” attempted an attack with nine drones” on a gas compressor station in southern Russia on January 11 that supplies the TurkStream pipeline in order to cut off gas supplies to European countries.
It said all the drones were shot down, with the falling debris causing “minor damage” to a building and equipment at a gas measuring station.
Zakharova said all those who participate in infrastructure projects but at the same time supply the Kyiv regime with weapons, drones and other lethal and non-lethal aid “must recognize that at some point these two processes may intersect and their own projects may be targeted by the weapons they supply.”
She was referring to Turkey’s supply of drones to Ukraine after Russia began its invasion of the country in 2022.
NATO member Turkey has sought to balance ties between its two Black Sea neighbors, Russia and Ukraine, since Moscow’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Ankara has sent Turkey-made drones to Ukraine while not imposing Western-led sanctions on Moscow.
“This is just a lack of common sense — to construct TurkStream and then supply the Kiev regime with weapons, which may be used to destroy this same TurkStream. Or to consume whatever is coming through TurkStream and at the same time flood the Kiev regime with weapons that they use against TurkStream,” Zakharova added.
TurkStream, which runs from Russia under the Black Sea to Turkey and then up through the Balkans, is the last active pipeline carrying Russian gas to Europe.
It runs 930 kilometers under the Black Sea and has an annual capacity of 31.5 billion cubic meters.
Ukraine halted the transit of Russian gas on January 1, which had for decades been the main route for shipping Russian supplies to Europe.