Russia says repelled Ukrainian drone attack on Turkstream pipeline compressor station

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(Reuters) – Russian air defences on Saturday repelled an attack by three Ukrainian drones on a compressor station that is part of the Turkstream pipeline system taking Russian gas to Europe, the Russian Defence Ministry said.

“In repelling the attack, Russian air defences downed three Ukrainian drones at a safe distance from the compressor station,” the statement said, referring to the “Russkaya” station in southern Russia’s Krasnodar region.

“The compressor station is now carrying out the flow of gas on the Turkstream pipeline in normal conditions.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov asked his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan, to use all means at his disposal to prevent future attacks and Fidan pledged to do so, the Russian foreign ministry said on its website.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, whose country receives Russian gas through Turkstream, said on Facebook that Lavrov had informed him of the attack by telephone.

Szijjarto said the operation of Turkstream was critical to Hungary’s energy security and called on the European Union to uphold guarantees that infrastructure linked to the 27-nation bloc would not come under attack.

(Reporting by Ron Popeski; Editing by Marguerita Choy)