“Russian Attacks Intensify on Ukrainian Port and Gas Pipeline Explosion in Kursk; Ceasefire Delayed”

Putin’s forces launched multiple waves of drone attacks on a Ukrainian port during an overnight assault. Simultaneously, a crucial Russian gas pipeline exploded, shooting flames 300 feet into the air.

Odesa, a vital Black Sea port in Ukraine, faced its most severe attack of the conflict, with Russia unleashing drone strikes that caused significant damage and injured at least three individuals.

The relentless bombing targeted residential areas, a shopping center, and various establishments, sparking fires and leading to power outages across several districts including Primorsky, Peresypsky, and Kievsky.

Ukraine today claimed Putin’s army triggered the biggest inferno of the war by exploding its own gas facility in a dirty tricks operation to blame Kyiv.

Towering flames at least 300ft high shot in the air at Sudzha gas pipeline metering hub in the Kursk region early Friday.

The explosion was initially seen as a Ukrainian strike during a night of hell which saw Russia attack Odesa city – but Kyiv insisted the gas explosion and giant flames were the result of artillery fire by the Kremlin’s own forces.

Sudzha in Russia’s Kursk region was under Ukrainian control until an advance by Putin’s forces in recent days.

Today’s giant explosion came as both sides have signalled their agreement to end strikes on energy facilities.

A Ukrainian military Telegram channel posted a picture of a fireball rising skyward, stating that the media was reporting a ‘successful strike on the Sudzha gas transport system through which the enemy used to transport gas to Europe’.

Ukrainian media also reported the strike and posted video footage of the blaze, as did Telegram channels in the Kursk region. 

But the Ukrainian military general staff said: ‘The Russian Federation is intensifying its discrediting campaign against Ukraine.

‘For example, the enemy has accused our Defence Forces of shelling the Sudzha gas metering station. These accusations are groundless.’

The facility had been ‘repeatedly shelled by the Russians themselves.

‘In particular, last summer it was bombed by guided aerial bombs, and three days ago the Russians again hit it with KABs [aerial bombs].

‘Today, the enemy has already intensified its planned destructive information influence with another provocation – it shelled this facility with artillery. 

‘It is worth adding that earlier the Russian troops used the main gas pipeline pipe for the covert movement of their units.

The Russians continue to produce numerous fakes and seek to mislead the international community.

‘We ask you to trust only official sources, check information and not succumb to manipulation.’

The Ukrainians claim the aim was to discredit them as US President Donald Trump seeks to halt energy and other infrastructure strikes.

The explosion came as Russian forces launched a mass drone attack on Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Odesa late Thursday night. Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne reported more than 18 explosions in the city after 10pm.

Odesa Governor Oleh Kiper said there had been strikes in three locations that triggered fires, while three districts of the city were suffering from power cuts.

Amid the wanton carnage, Ukrainian Telegram channel Pravda Gerashchenko said: ‘Everyone should see these images to understand how terrorist Putin really “wants peace”.’

The Kremlin changed tactics to swarm Iranian-designed Shahed drones on Odesa, a city with close Russian roots, overwhelming air defences and inflicting maximum destruction, according to reports.

Odesa has been a frequent target of Russian attacks in the more than three-year-old war, particularly the city’s port facilities.

The governor of Ukraine’s southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, Ivan Fedorov, reported several strikes on areas near the city of Zaporizhzhia, including one guided bomb. He said five people were injured, including a child.

Footage showed how the Kremlin dictator had ordered savage aerial strikes of his own territory in Kursk region with FAB-1500 and FAB-3000 guided aerial bombs, seeking to dislodge Ukrainian occupying troops, while he continued to wage war in the eastern Donbas zone.

This facility was in Ukraine’s hands until Russian advances last weekend – and is a Gazprom pipeline pumping 42.4 million cubic metres per day to European countries until Kyiv blocked exports at the end of 2024.

The giant torch of fire – estimated at 300ft high or more – was visible in Russia’s Kursk city, as well as from the Sumy outskirts, across the border in Ukraine.

Empty gas pipelines here were notoriously used by Russian troops, who crawled many miles down them to attack Ukrainian positions earlier this month. 

Separately, a Putin Kh-101 missile storage warehouse and aviation fuel stocks at the Engels-2 strategic bomber airbase were burning and exploding the day after it was hit by a pinpoint Ukrainian drone strike.

A state of emergency was in force as residents were evacuated from the exploding deadly ammunition and fuel.

A blaze at the Kavkazskaya oil transit point in Krasnodar region, hit two days ago by Ukraine, worsened today as a new fuel tank ignited in flames amid fresh ‘explosions’. 

The raging inferno expanded to 108,000 square feet, with 100,000 tons of oil products on the site.

Local officials issued an order for residents to ‘avoid being outdoors, do not open windows, do wet cleaning more often, give up contact lenses in favour of glasses, drink more, rinse your eyes, nose and throat, stop smoking, and use masks and respirators if you need to go outside’.

In Volgograd overnight the Marinovka military airfield was ‘burning’ after a series of explosions from suspected Ukrainian drone attacks.

This airbase is home to Russia’s Sukhoi Su-24M bombers – used to hit Ukraine – and Su-24MR frontline reconnaissance planes.

One unconfirmed report said ‘the shells loaded onto the planes are exploding’. Residents were told to expect evacuation.

In the Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine, Russian forces dropped aerial bombs leaving six injured including a 4-year-old boy. Several homes were destroyed or damaged.

Trump is seeking to put in place a ceasefire at least extending to attacks on energy facilities, but it is not agreed between the two sides yet pending meetings next week in Saudi Arabia.

But Russian anti-Putin commentator Alexander Nevzorov warned that the Kremlin dictator is mocking the US president.

‘Putin openly mocks Trump, considering him a noisy American fool who still doesn’t have enough ‘balls’ to really deal with Russia,’ he posted.

‘The ghoul’s plan is simple: to furiously escalate the war, hitting those very ‘forbidden targets’ that he promised ‘not to touch’.

‘At the same time, Putin is ready to coo over the phone about ‘peace’.

‘He is 100% sure that the West has ‘no guts’, that it will inevitably deflate in the face of the Russian caveman’s desire to devour Ukraine.

‘And having deflected, it will gradually ‘crawl away’, leaving the [Russians] with their ‘legitimate prey’.’

Putin is ‘convinced’ he will ‘undoubtedly win this duel of characters’ with Trump.

‘The carpet bombing of Odesa at night – which hit residential buildings, a shopping centre, all kinds of social and energy structures – was his spit in the face of his friend Donnie.’

Meanwhile, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Russian TV: ‘We believe that the Kyiv regime has already broken the ceasefire proposed by the US president.

‘Now the question is….how is Washington going to handle this terrorist scum gone mad? How are they going to put them in their place and get them on to something like the right track?’

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said Kyiv is ready to join such a ceasefire – discussed on Tuesday between Trump and Putin – if there is a documented agreement with Russia.

Ukrainian officials have also accused Russia of breaking its word on the ceasefire by launching attacks on civilian targets. 

Zelensky said on Wednesday that Russian attacks on infrastructure, including hospitals and rail equipment, showed ‘Putin’s words are very different from reality’.

Zelensky, speaking in Norway on Thursday, said that although he originally had sought a broader ceasefire, he was committed to working with the US to stop arms being directed at power production and civilian facilities.

‘I raised this issue with President Trump and said that our side would identify what we consider to be civilian infrastructure,’ Zelensky said. ‘I don’t want there to be any misunderstanding about what the sides are agreeing on.’

The tentative deal to partially rein in the three-year war came after Putin rebuffed Trump’s push for a full 30-day ceasefire. 

The difficulty in getting the combatants to stop targeting one another’s energy infrastructure highlights the challenges Trump will face in trying to fulfill his campaign pledge to quickly end the war.

Negotiators from Moscow and the US will meet Monday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Putin’s foreign affairs adviser Sergei Ushakov told Russian news agencies.

Zelensky said team would also meet with the US in Saudi Arabia to discuss technical issues, and then the US will act as an intermediary running ‘shuttle diplomacy’ between Kyiv and Moscow.

Yet new evidence has come to light that Putin has no intention of ending the war soon, as Trump is demanding.

Earlier this week – minutes before speaking to Trump – Putin told a closed meeting of Russia business and oligarch elite that ‘there would be no quick peace deal with Ukraine’, according to independent Faridaily Telegram channel, citing sources inside the session.

‘The negotiation process would be difficult and slow, despite the optimistic public statements of the American side,’ said the report.

‘There was no unbridled optimism that [negotiating peace] would be quick,’ said one source.