Kazakhstan protests attack on CPC berth in Novorossiysk: Ukraine responds

Kazakhstan has condemned an attack on one of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium’s berths in the port of Novorossiysk.

The Kazakh Foreign Ministry issued a statement to that effect.

The ministry’s spokesman, Aibek Smadiyarov, said the ministry “expresses its protest against another deliberate attack on the critical infrastructure of the international Caspian Pipeline Consortium in the waters of the port of Novorossiysk.”

The spokesman called the incident “the third act of aggression against an exclusively civilian facility, the operation of which is guaranteed by international law.”

Kazakhstan also stressed that the Caspian Pipeline Consortium plays “an important role in maintaining the stability of the global energy system.”

“We consider what happened as actions that harm the bilateral relations of the Republic of Kazakhstan and Ukraine, and expect the Ukrainian side to take effective measures to prevent similar incidents in the future,” the statement said.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry responded that it had taken into account the concerns and emphasized that none of the Ukrainian side’s actions were directed against the Republic of Kazakhstan or other third parties — all of Ukraine’s efforts are focused on repelling full-scale Russian aggression within the framework of the implementation of the right to self-defense guaranteed by Article 51 of the UN Charter.

Ukraine recalled that within the framework of verified and strategically justified defense operations, the Defense Forces systematically weaken the aggressor’s military-industrial potential and deprive it of the means to wage war — Ukraine strikes in response to the aggressor’s strikes and attacks.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry also emphasized that the only factor of destabilization and the cause of security challenges in the Black Sea region and beyond remains Russian aggression.

In particular, the agency drew attention to the absence of previous statements by the Kazakh side condemning the Russian Federation’s attacks on civilians in Ukraine, residential buildings, civilian infrastructure and the energy system of Ukraine, in particular the substations of Ukrainian nuclear power plants.

“We call on all parties to direct their efforts to force the aggressor to end the criminal war against our state and people as soon as possible. Finally, we confirm our unwavering respect for the Kazakh people and our determination to develop friendly and pragmatic relations with the Republic of Kazakhstan, which correspond to the level of historically strong ties between our peoples,” the ministry summarized.

We would like to remind you that the other day, as a result of an attack by naval drones, one of the berths of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium in Novorossiysk was put out of action.

The CPC pipeline system is one of the largest investment projects in the energy sector of Russia. The length of the Tengiz-Novorossiysk pipeline is 1,511 km. This route transports a significant part of raw materials from Russian fields, as well as more than two-thirds of all Kazakhstan’s export oil. Oil is shipped to the CPC via remote mooring devices 5 km from the coastline.

Earlier, USM reported that Turkey is concerned about the attack by SBU drones on tankers of the Russian “shadow fleet”.