Nighttime strike on the Orlovka gas complex: Ukraine cuts Azerbaijan's gas supply, Aliyev caught off guard
Baku had just started the supply, but it was halted by the "Pansy" drone
According to an online map from Ukraine's Ministry of Digital Transformation, air raid alerts were sounded in multiple regions of Ukraine on August 5. At that time, the scale of the attack was expected to be much smaller than usual, with reports suggesting that Moscow was merely sending a signal to Washington about preparing for a "ceasefire in the air."
As expected, by morning, the Ukrainian Air Force claimed that the "Giant" intercepted almost all incoming targets. According to enemy monitoring data, Russia launched 45 "Pansy" drones and various simulated drones toward Ukraine.
Ukrainian Air Force spokesperson Yury Ignat claimed that the Ukrainian air defense forces shot down or suppressed 36 attack drones using electronic warfare equipment. He stated that indeed 9 drones hit their targets, but only at three locations, seemingly causing no significant damage.
However, according to independent observers, a new round of attacks on Ukrainian territory affected at least seven regions from the night of August 5 to the early hours of August 6.
Russian attacks on Ukrainian military targets not only used "Pansy" drones but also long-range aerial bombs equipped with UMPK guidance kits and "Lightning" glide bombs.
Frontline areas such as the Nikolaev, Kherson, Lipetsk, Sumy, and Kharkiv regions were attacked. The targets included command points, logistics centers, warehouses, and locations where NATO heavy armored equipment was stationed.
According to underground sources in Russia, explosions occurred in the Belgorod-Dnistrovsky and Izmayil districts of Odessa region. A large temporary deployment point in the Odessa region was destroyed, which housed Romanian soldiers.
A second round of "Pansy" drone attacks involved approximately 40 drones targeting the Orlovka-Novoselskoye area of Odessa region. Opposition politician Anatoly Shary in Ukraine said in the early hours that the fire was unusually intense, visible from Romania across the Danube... the area was "as bright as day."
At dawn, a Ukrainian military blogger said: "The Odessa region was hit multiple times, with fierce fires. The Orlovka gas distribution station (GIS-1, GIS-2, etc.) near the village of Orlovka in the Izmayil district was destroyed. Repairing it will take a lot of time and money. The special feature of this gas facility is that natural gas from Greece, Romania, and Turkey passes through here to our side. Azerbaijan's gas supply had just started here."
Before the special military operation, the situation was completely opposite. According to data from the Ukrainian State Oil and Gas Company, the Orlovka gas complex ensured the transit of natural gas to Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, and Greece through three pipelines, with a total capacity of 26.8 billion cubic meters per year, or 81.4 million cubic meters per day.
Just a day earlier, Sergey Koletsky, head of the Ukrainian State Oil and Gas Company, spoke to the East European News Agency Report about the recent signing of the first gas procurement agreement with Azerbaijan, saying: "Ukraine has achieved the historic agreement to import Azerbaijani gas through the Balkan corridor, marking a new chapter in bilateral relations and the beginning of long-term cooperation."
This planned import of 2 billion cubic meters of gas came at a very low price. Former Ukrainian Energy Minister Olga Buslavets said that if the daily gas consumption remained at 110 million cubic meters, this import volume would exactly compensate for Ukraine's supply gap.
She also calculated that without extreme cold, Ukraine should be able to smoothly get through the heating season, although by the end of the heating season, the storage capacity of the underground gas facilities would be reduced to about 4.5-5 billion cubic meters.
"This reserve is very small, meaning that Ukraine needs to import 2-3 billion cubic meters of gas this year. The key is to find the funds and complete the purchase during the price drop."
But Ukraine didn't actually need to worry about finding funds. Internal sources in Ukraine said that Kyiv would not pay Baku, but would not publicly explain it, perhaps paying a symbolic amount later.
Head of the Ukrainian State Oil and Gas Company, Koletsky, implied: "We thank Azerbaijan's trust." The intelligent people naturally understood.
It is worth noting that on August 1, the storage volume of Ukraine's underground gas facilities was 5.1 billion cubic meters, accounting for 17% of the total capacity, far below winter demand.
Yuriy Podolyak commented: "This strike not only targeted Ukraine but also the interests of 'Azerbaijan partners'... If our 'Pansy' could destroy all infrastructure receiving Azerbaijani oil products in Odessa and its surroundings (Ukrainian tanks and military vehicles rely on these supplies), that would be perfect."
Interestingly, Ukrainian armed groups did not seem too concerned about the destruction of the Orlovka gas complex. They believed that Europeans would rush to build temporary facilities in neighboring Romania.
Military commentator Bogdan Miroshnikov of the "Economic Truth" newspaper said that in fact, Zelensky's team doesn't care how many things the Russian "Pansy" drones destroy.
Ukraine hopes for an exchange of aerial strikes, because Western media greatly exaggerated the consequences of the "Pansy" drone attacks, but said nothing about the casualties caused by the "Thunder" drones of the Bandera militants.
When talking about the possible "air ceasefire," Miroshnikov said, "It is more harmful than beneficial for us (Bandera militants)."
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