A NATO member scrambled fighter jets and activated full air-defense readiness earlier this week as Russia launched a targeted strike on a critical gas metering station near Romania’s border — undermining a pipeline route previously used to funnel energy from the U.S. and Azerbaijan to Europe.
The Kremlin launched a drone strike on the Orlivka (Orlovka) gas metering and compressor station 800 meters from to Ukraine’s southwestern border with Romania. The facility is a critical hub in a supply route used to import LNG from the United States and Azerbaijan into Ukraine and Europe. The attack ignited a large fire and caused severe damage to the infrastructure.
In response, Romania — a NATO member — scrambled F‑16 fighter jets and activated heightened air-defense readiness to monitor its airspace. The strike occurred just half a mile from Romanian territory, underscoring the strike’s proximity to NATO borders and the heightened regional tensions.
ZeroHedge reports additional details:
Russia’s defense ministry acknowledged the intentional attack on Ukraine’s gas infrastructure, coming amid a renewed exchange of attacks by both Russia and Ukraine on energy and transport sites generally. So after six months, even the so-called ‘energy ceasefire’ is clearly off.
Ukraine is busy making great efforts to stockpile gas ahead of what’s typically a brutally cold winter season. President Zelensky called it deliberate in terms of timing.
“This was a deliberate and utterly cynical attempt to disrupt our preparations for the heating season,” Zelensky said in a social media post on Wednesday.
The Transbalkan pipeline had during the Soviet era and after at one time transported Russian gas through Ukraine to several Balkan and Eastern European countries – including Romania, Moldova, Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey.
The attack raised serious alarm over European energy security and highlighted Russia’s willingness to disrupt international energy cooperation, particularly between the U.S., Azerbaijan, Ukraine, and EU partners.
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Seeds for WW3
Of course.
Putin probably see’s American imports of LNG as competition for his similar energy imports.
I’m surprised the new LNG transport ships haven’t been featured identification mages on the bulkheads of Putin’s nuclear subs.
After all they are floating bombs.
May need some ASW features for those transports.