Hours before Ukrainian negotiators were due to head to the United States for talks to end the war, one of Russia’s largest oil terminals halted operations Saturday after it was attacked by a maritime drone.
The Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), a group that includes US oil companies Chevron and ExxonMobil and which owns the terminal, called the strike a “terrorist attack”.
Ukraine, which has not commented on the incident, has sought to strike back against its neighbor as the war grinds into its fourth year.
The attack comes after Moscow’s military launched a deadly storm of drones and missiles across Ukraine, killing three people and damaging buildings across Kiev, according to Ukrainian officials.
“As a result of a targeted terrorist attack by unmanned boats on Single Mooring Point 2 (SMP-2) at 4:06 a.m. Moscow time (0106 GMT),” the CPC said in a statement on Telegram.
“Further operation of SMP-2 is not possible. Loadings at the terminal are done as per established regulations after drone threats are eliminated,” it added.
The CPC pipeline, which starts in Kazakhstan and ends at the terminal, is a major conduit for Kazakh oil and one of the world’s largest by volume, handling about one percent of global supply.
The US has put forward a plan to end the conflict with the approval of Moscow and Kiev.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday that a team was on its way to the United States to review the plan, but the talks come at a difficult moment for him and his administration.
Russia has been on the front line for more than a year, while Zelensky’s government has faced pressure from a blockbuster corruption investigation that forced him to fire his powerful chief of staff on Friday.
– ‘I saw the burning’ –
AFP journalists in Kiev reported on a night of intense explosions that kept many in the capital asleep.
In the morning, reporters saw cars and apartment buildings engulfed in flames.
The strike left more than 600,000 consumers without power nationwide, including 500,000 in Kyiv, the Energy Ministry said.
Russia, which has denied targeting civilians, said it attacked energy infrastructure in Ukraine’s military-industrial complex.
Ukraine says the attack by Russia is a conspiracy to kill its citizens.
“The main targets of the attack were energy infrastructure and civilian facilities, extensive damage and fire to residential buildings,” Zelensky said on X.
“We currently have reports of dozens of injuries and three deaths.”
Galina Bondarenko, a Ukrainian media activist, told AFP in Kiev that the blast blew debris into her home.
“There was a piece of debris next to the bed, which hit the bed and got stuck,” she said.
Another resident, Natalia Skoda, 43, said the attack set her and her husband’s car on fire.
“We heard a very loud explosion… My husband said: ‘It must have hit our car.’ When I went out, I saw it burning.”
– Ukraine targets ‘shadow fleet’ –
Meanwhile, a Ukrainian source claimed responsibility for the attacks on two oil tankers in the Black Sea, allegedly with a secret sanctioned Russian oil shipment.
Two ships, the Virat and the Kairos, were hit by an explosion off the coast of Turkey late on Friday, the Turkish Transport Ministry said. One of the two was hit again on Saturday morning, the ministry said.
“Modern Sea Baby naval drones successfully targeted the ships,” a source in Ukraine’s SBU security service told AFP.
The source shared a video showing maritime drones gliding towards the two ships before the explosion.
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
What Kiev and its European allies call the largest and deadliest war on European soil since World War II is an unreasonable and illegal land grab that has led to a tidal wave of violence and destruction.
Tens of thousands of civilians and military personnel have been killed since the war began, while millions of Ukrainians have been forced to flee their homes.
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