MOSCOW, Feb 19 (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested on Wednesday that a Ukrainian drone attack on the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) pumping station in southern Russia might have been coordinated with its Western allies.
Putin said that he believed Ukraine could not have organised such an attack on its own and was likely provided with Western intelligence.
“Attacks of this kind are impossible without space reconnaissance. Ukraine receives high-precision data on the targets only from its Western allies,” Putin said.
A drone strike hit a pumping station on the oil pipeline in Russia on Monday, reducing flows from Kazakhstan to world markets pumped by Western firms including Chevron (CVX.N) and Exxon Mobil (XOM.N).
Putin said the incident would affect global energy markets and that restoring the facility quickly would be challenging.
“The strike on such a facility… would have an impact on the world’s energy markets. First of all because unfortunately it is impossible to quickly restore this facility due to the fact that Western equipment is present there, and Western equipment has been damaged,” Putin said, mentioning the Western sanctions prohibiting the supply of oil and gas equipment.
Reporting by Marina Bobrova; Writing by Maxim Rodionov; Editing by Toby Chopra and Hugh Lawson
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