Screenshot: Russian Defence Ministry
A gas metering station near Sudzha, in the part of Russia’s western Kursk region that was under Ukrainian control until Russian troops retook it earlier this month, came under renewed attack on Friday morning, with both Moscow and Kyiv accusing each other of being behind the strike.
According to the Russian Defence Ministry, the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) struck the Sudzha station with HIMARS missiles, which started “a major fire” that “practically destroyed” the facility, violating the ongoing energy infrastructure ceasefire that Moscow and Kyiv agreed to last week.
Meanwhile, Andriy Kovalenko, the head of Ukraine’s Centre for Countering Disinformation, accused Russia of being behind the attack, noting that despite recapturing the town of Sudzha, Russian troops were not in control of the gas metering station on its outskirts.
Russia’s continued targeting of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure despite the US-brokered ceasefire was, Kovalenko charged, Vladimir Putin’s way of “deliberately humiliating” US President Donald Trump.
This is the second attack on the Sudzha gas metering station in the past week, with both sides accusing each other in both cases of responsibility for the attack.
Moscow and Kyiv agreed to uphold an energy infrastructure ceasefire on Tuesday in separate statements following US-brokered talks, however, each side used different wording: while Washington said Russia and Ukraine had agreed to “develop measures” for implementing a ceasefire, Kyiv said that “all parties” had agreed “on a complete ban” on energy infrastructure strikes.
The Kremlin, in turn, claimed that the 30-day energy infrastructure ceasefire had started on 18 March — something Ukraine has since denied, saying it began on Tuesday after the statements were published.
The Sudzha gas metering station was part of the only operational pipeline through which Russian gas exports could be delivered to Europe until Russia’s gas transit deal with Ukraine expired on 1 January.
