MADRID, 22 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The United States has urged Ukraine to stop attacks on Russia’s energy infrastructure, warning that these actions threaten to drive up global oil prices and provoke retaliation, according to the Financial Times, citing three people familiar with the matter. the discussions.
The sources consulted indicated that Washington’s warnings were conveyed to senior officials of Ukraine’s state security service, the SBU, as well as to the military intelligence directorate, known as GUR, which have been expanding the scope of their own drone programs. to attack Russian targets.
In this regard, one of the people said that the White House had become increasingly frustrated by the brazen attacks by Ukrainian drones against oil refineries, terminals, warehouses and storage facilities throughout western Russia, damaging the oil production capacity of one of the world’s largest energy exporters despite Western sanctions on its oil and gas sector.
So far this year, oil prices have increased around 15% and have consolidated above $85 per barrel, increasing the cost of fuel and delaying the control of inflation that would allow more agile adjustments of interest rates by the Federal Reserve just as US President Joe Biden begins his re-election campaign.
Likewise, Washington would also be concerned that if Ukraine insists on continuing to attack Russian facilities, many of which are hundreds of kilometers from the border, Russia could retaliate against energy infrastructure on which the West depends, including the CPC pipeline that transports oil from Kazakhstan through Russia and used by Western companies such as ExxonMobil and Chevron.
“We do not encourage or enable attacks inside Russia,” a spokesman for the National Security Council (NSC) said, while the CIA declined to comment. Likewise, from kyiv, an SBU spokesperson did not comment to the newspaper, and officials from the GUR and the office of Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenskyy did not respond to requests for comment.
Questioned about this matter, Olha Stefanishyna, Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine for European and Euro-Atlantic integration, highlighted the success of the operations on the territory of the Russian Federation. “We understand the calls of our American partners,” Stefanishyna told a security forum in kyiv.
