As Kyiv and Moscow prepare for consultations to temporarily suspend energy infrastructure strikes, each side continues to condemn fresh attacks on the power grid with other attacks, highlighting the deep distrust between them.
Overnight until Friday, some of Russia's major gas stations near the Ukrainian border were flapping up in attacks that Ukraine and Russia denounced each other. An unverified video shared by Russian military bloggers showed a major fire at the station. This once pumped gas into Europe through Ukraine, making the pipeline seem to be engulfed in flames.
Also on Friday, Russian authorities in southwestern Krasnodar reported a secondary explosion in a fuel storehouse that had been burning for two days in a drone attack in Ukraine. Russian officials said the fire had spread to more than 100,000 square feet.
Kyiv and Moscow agreed this week to a limited 30-day ceasefire on strikes against energy infrastructure. This is the first major step towards de-escalation in a war that lasted more than three years.
However, details on how this partial ceasefire will be held remain unresolved and are expected to be brought forward in US-mediated talks in Saudi Arabia on Monday.
On Wednesday, the Ukrainian National Railway said its power system had been attacked. On the same day, Russia said Ukrainian drones had attacked fuel storage forces in the Krasnodar region. Neither claim could be verified independently.
Both sides are interested in blaming others for violating a ceasefire before attempting to portray them as unreliable. Against the backdrop, Friday's attack on Russian gas stations fits neatly into this propaganda war.
The gas station sits across the border from Ukraine, near the Ukrainian town of territory seized by Ukrainian forces during an invasion of Russia's western Kursk region last summer. However, recent Russian advances have pushed the region's Ukrainian troops back from areas other than small pieces of land, and as of Friday it was unclear whether they still controlled the station.
Russia's main federal investigator, the Russian Board of Investigations, announced on Friday that it had launched a criminal investigation into the event. The Ukrainian military said it had “deliberately carried out an explosion of the Skas Hagas distribution station.”
However, the Ukrainian military suggested that the explosion was a Russian “fake flag” operation designed to hold Ukraine accountable. Russia has said it has “repeated” the station in the past as it counterattacked Ukrainian troops in the region.
“The Russians continue to make many fakes and try to mislead the international community,” the Army said in a Facebook post.
Ivan Nechepurenko contributed the report.
