Budapest - Saba:
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced that Ukraine, in collusion with Brussels (the headquarters of the European Union Commission), halted the transfer of Russian natural gas to pressure Hungary and Slovakia and drag them into the Ukrainian conflict.
In a speech at the Antalya Diplomatic Forum in Turkey, Orbán said, according to the Russian news agency Sputnik, "At the beginning of this year, Ukraine, in collusion with Brussels bureaucrats, shut down a major European gas pipeline that passes through its territory. In this way, they want to pressure the Slovaks and us, and drag us into the Russian-Ukrainian conflict."
He emphasized that "Budapest now has the opportunity to receive Russian natural gas only via the Turkish Stream pipeline," emphasizing that "Turkey is a key partner for Hungary."
Orbán noted that the purpose of his visit to Antalya was to hold negotiations with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
The Russian Ministry of Defense previously announced that it had thwarted a Ukrainian attempt to attack the compressor station for the Turkish Stream pipeline in Kuban, in Russia's Krasnodar Krai, with the aim of halting Russian gas supplies to European countries, following Volodymyr Zelensky's visit to the United States.
The ministry's statement read, "On the night of February 28, against the backdrop of Volodymyr Zelensky's visit to Washington, the Kyiv regime launched a new attempt to attack the infrastructure of the Russkaya compressor station in the town of Gai-Kodzor (Krasnodar Krai), which supplies gas via the Turkish Stream pipeline. The attack involved three winged drones, with the aim of disrupting gas supplies to European countries."
The ministry stated that air defense systems repelled the attack and shot down all three Ukrainian drones at a safe distance from the gas compressor station.
The ministry explained that this was a recurring attempt, as "the Kyiv regime attempted to target the infrastructure of the Russkaya compressor station in the town of Gai-Kodzor on January 11" to disrupt Russian gas supplies to Europe using drones.
The ministry confirmed that Russian forces repelled the attack and "managed to shoot down all the drones. However, fragments from one of the drones caused minor damage to a building and equipment at the gas metering station. Gazprom personnel removed the debris and repaired the equipment."
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