Russia Neighbor Warns Ukraine After New Oil Pipeline Attack

By Ellie Cook

Senior Defense Reporter

ShareNewsweek is a Trust Project member

Kyiv's attacks on infrastructure propping up oil exports are "detrimental" to Kazakh relations with Kyiv, Astana's government said on Sunday, after Ukrainian seaborne drones attacked two Russian-linked oil tankers and Kazakh authorities said unmanned boats had damaged an oil terminal in the Black Sea.

Why It Matters

Ukraine has frequently attacked infrastructure connected to Russian oil and energy exports to cut Kremlin off from funds used to support its war effort.

What To Know

The Kazakh Foreign Ministry said on Sunday it "expresses its protest over the latest targeted attack on the vital infrastructure of the International Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) in the waters of the Novorossiysk seaport."

...

The Caspian Pipeline Consortium operates more than 1,500 kilometers, around 930 miles, of pipeline from Kazakhstan to a terminal close to Russia's Novorossiysk port on the Black Sea coast, where it is loaded onto tankers. Western companies are also shareholders in the CPC.

The CPC said on Saturday it had stopped operations at one of its moorings, which was "significantly damaged" by uncrewed surface vessels. Moorings are used to load tankers away from the coastline.

The mooring "has been taken out of operation until full repair and restoration works are completed," the Kazakh Energy Ministry said in a statement. Astana said "such actions against purely civilian critical infrastructure are unacceptable" and said it had redirected crude oil exports to "limit negative consequences."

"We regard this incident as an action detrimental to the bilateral relations between the Republic of Kazakhstan and Ukraine, and we expect the Ukrainian side to take concrete measures to prevent such incidents from recurring," Astana said.

Astana said the CPC was key for maintaining global energy supplies and the country placed "special emphasis on ensuring the stable and uninterrupted supply of energy resources."

Ukraine's military said early on Saturday it had targeted the Afipsky oil refinery in Russia's Krasnodar region, but that the extent of the damage wasn't clear. It also said it had destroyed a storage tank at the Tuapse oil terminal on Tuesday.

Both the Afipsky and Tuapse sites are in Krasnodar. The military did not reference an attack on Novorossiysk, also in Krasnodar, but Andriy Kovalenko, an official with Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, said drones had "managed to destroy" one of the CPC's three oil tanker moorings near Novorossiysk.

A source in Ukraine's SBU domestic security agency told Newsweek Ukrainian surface drones had struck two oil tankers in the Black Sea on Friday afternoon linked to Russia's so-called "shadow fleet." These are vessels widely believed to be used by the Kremlin to skirt sanctions placed on Russia by many Western countries.

Kyiv used home-grown Sea Baby naval drones to attack the Gambia-flagged Kairos and Virat tankers, the source said, but did not reference damage to moorings at Novorossiysk.

The source said the SBU operation was carried out jointly with the Ukrainian navy and both tankers "suffered critical damage."

The SBU source said the tankers were empty when the upgraded Sea Baby drones struck the vessels and were en route to Novorossiysk. Sea Baby naval drones were developed specifically for the SBU.

"This will deal a significant blow to the transportation of Russian oil," the source said.

Maria Zakharova, a spokesperson for Russia's Foreign Ministry, said Moscow "strongly" condemned attacks on both the tankers and the CPC infrastructure at Novorossiysk.

Russian state media reported on Sunday that officials were in touch with Turkish authorities over the attacks on the tankers. Turkey's government said over the weekend the Ukrainian strikes on the tankers happened within Ankara's exclusive economic zone and posed "serious risks to navigation, life, property and environmental safety in the region."

What People Are Saying

Kazakhstan's government said on Sunday, referring to Ukraine's reported Saturday attack on the Caspian Pipeline Consortium: "This incident constitutes the third act of aggression against a civilian facility protected by the norms of international law."

Request Reprint & LicensingSubmit CorrectionView Editorial & AI Guidelines