Russia Declares Druzhba Oil Pipeline Mining Next To Belarusian Border

The explosive devices were discovered at the oil pumping station Novozybkov.

The Russian operator of the pipeline Druzhba reported on the mining of the pipeline in the Bryansk region near the border with Belarus. The explosive devices were found at Novozybkov pumping station. Igor Demin, representative of the company, informed about it.

"Indeed, explosive devices in destroyed plastic casings of non-industrial production with a striking warhead in the form of steel balls were found on the territory of the oil pumping station Novozybkov yesterday evening and this morning. Presumably, the destruction of the casings was caused by hitting the ground when dropped from drones. At noon today, we saw another explosive device dropped from the UAVs, probably similar to the previous two," TASS quotes him.

Demin adds that this year, the station was not pumping oil and its tank field remained empty.

In early March, it was reported that drones attacked an oil pipeline substation in the Belgorod Region. In February, Transneft claimed one had attempted to bombard the same Novozybkovo oil pumping station in the Bryansk Region.

Last November, after another Russian missile attack, Ukraine suspended oil pumping through its section of the pipeline. Then a missile hit a transformer substation near the Ukrainian-Belarusian border. It provided power to the Druzhba pumping station.