Russia says Ukraine tried to attack a Russian ship near major gas pipelines in the Black Sea

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia said on Sunday that Ukraine had made a failed attempt to attack a Russian naval vessel with six high-speed drone boats while the Russian ship was patrolling major natural gas pipelines in the Black Sea.

The Priazovy was carrying out what the Russian Defense Ministry said was “monitoring the situation and ensuring security along the TurkStream and Blue Stream gas pipeline routes in the southeastern part of the Black Sea.”

Ukraine attacked in the early hours of Sunday morning, about 300 km (300 km) southeast of Sevastopol, the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea fleet on the Russian-annexed Crimea peninsula, the defense ministry said.

The Defense Ministry said that an American RQ-4 Global Hawk reconnaissance drone was at the time of the attack in the central region of the Black Sea.

“The ship of the Black Sea Fleet Priazovye continues to carry out the tasks assigned to it,” the Defense Ministry said.

Russia and Turkey officially launched the TurkStream with a capacity of 31.5 billion cubic meters per year in January 2020. The pipeline, which allows Moscow to bypass Ukraine as a transit route to Europe, carries Russian natural gas to southern Europe via the Black Sea and Turkey.

The Blue Stream pipeline carries Russian gas to Türkiye.

Reporting by Reuters. Editing by Jay Faulconbridge

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