Russia Says Ukraine Tried to Attack Russian Ship Near Major Gas Pipelines in Black Sea

Russia said on Sunday that Ukraine had made unsuccessful attempt to attack a Russian naval ship with six high-speed drone boats as the Russian vessel patrolled major natural gas pipelines in the Black Sea.

The 'Priazovye' ship was carrying out what Russia's defense ministry said was "monitoring of the situation and ensuring security along the routes of the TurkStream and Blue Stream gas pipelines in the southeastern part of the Black Sea."

Ukraine attacked in the early hours of Sunday about 300 km south-east of Sevastopol, the headquarters of Russia's Black Sea fleet on the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula, the defense ministry said.

At the time of the attack, a U.S. RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned surveillance aircraft was in the central area of the Black Sea, the defense ministry said.

"The Black Sea Fleet ship 'Priazovye' continues to carry out its assigned tasks," the defense ministry said.

Russia and Turkey formally launched TurkStream with capacity of 31.5 billion cubic meters per year in January 2020. The pipeline, which allows Moscow to bypass Ukraine as a transit route to Europe, carries Russian natural gas to southern Europe through the Black Sea and Turkey.

The Blue Stream pipeline delivers Russian gas to Turkey.

(Reuters - Reporting by Reuters; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)