There is a long history of Ukraine and its foreign backers using their control over gas and oil transit as a weapon, either for economic blackmail or for political advantage. In the years before the 2014 Maidan coup, a long-running dispute with Russia over non-payment for Ukrainian gas was followed by a throttling of the transit lines to Germany and Europe, after Russia cut Ukraine's share out of the gas being pumped - Ukraine's response was to take its gas from Germany's quota, causing brown-outs and winter fuel shortages. Fifteen-plus years later, this policy of extortion and blackmail continues, with the blowing up of the Nordstream gas pipelines affecting European markets and forcing changes in fuel use and consumption. Most recently however, this ability to exploit Ukraine's position as a necessary intermediary in the pipelines carrying oil and gas to Europe has shown up in the current stand off over Hungary and Slovakia, who are entirely dependent on Russian energy imports. The Al Jazeera report below explains the situation, currently over the failure to 'unblock' the Druzhba pipeline by Kiev, but also includes video of an attack on the main supply terminal for the pipeline in the Southern Urals. It isn't clear what exactly hit this terminal, but it evidently did significant damage, as seen in satellite photos included in the report. That the strike followed only a day after the first use of a 'Ukrainian-made' cruise missile that caused serious damage to a strategic missile manufacturing plant in the same region makes one wonder if this was also a 'Flamingo' missile. Given that these missiles only hit their precise targets thanks to US satellite direction, the question is less important - but the objectives of the MI6-CIA operations are the same in any case.
DM 26.02.2026