Russia accuses Ukraine of ‘reckless’ strikes on major gas pipeline

The Kremlin accused Ukraine on Thursday (March 12, 2026) of targeting a major gas pipeline in southern Russia that leads to Turkey with “reckless” drone strikes.

Ukraine has hit Russian energy targets throughout Moscow’s four-year offensive, a war that has killed thousands and displaced millions.

“At night, there were renewed attempts to attack the Russkaya compressor station with drones,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, calling the pipeline an “international facility” that “ensures energy security for Turkey”.

“These are absolutely reckless actions by the Kyiv regime,” Mr. Peskov said.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said it had downed 10 Ukrainian-launched drones in the early hours of Thursday (March 12) “above the gas compressor station that supplies gas to the TurkStream pipeline”.

The station lies in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region, which is regularly targeted by Ukrainian drone strikes.

State-owned Russian gas producer Gazprom earlier said that the Russkaya and Beregovaya stations were targeted.

It called them “critical energy infrastructure facilities ensuring the reliability of gas exports via the TurkStream and Blue Stream gas pipelines.”

Russia has decimated much of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in more than four years of war.