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Russia accused Ukraine of striking a gas pipeline in Sudzha, thus violating an agreement not to strike each other's energy infrastructure brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Ukraine accused Russia of hitting the gas station and falsely accusing Kyiv of responsibility.
The technical details of the energy infrastructure ceasefire are due to be worked out in the coming days, but both Presidents Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky had already agreed in calls with Trump to temporarily stop such strikes.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday morning that Putin's order not to strike energy infrastructure remains in place despite Ukraine's actions, Russian state media reported.
A day before, Russia had accused Ukraine of violating a ceasefire agreement by striking its oil depots.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in a Facebook post that Russia was "increasing the discreditation campaign against Ukraine."
"Yes, the enemy blamed our Defense Forces in the bombardment of the Sudzha gas station," said post. "These allegations are baseless. Yes, the mentioned station was repeatedly shelled by the Russians themselves."
A Ukrainian military Telegram account had posted a video of the Sudzha blast earlier in the day, Reuters reported.
The video was captioned: "Media are reporting a successful strike on the Sudzha gas transport system through which the enemy used to transport gas to Europe."
Svetlana Petrenko, the official representative of the Investigative Committee of Russia, told state-owned RIA Novosti an investigation had been opened into the blast, and pointed the finger at Kyiv.
"A criminal case has been opened in connection with the explosion of the Sudzha gas distribution station by the Ukrainian Armed Forces servicemen," she said.
The case will be investigated as a terror attack and will be handled by the military's central investigations unit, RIA reported.
This is a developing story and more information will be added shortly.
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This story was originally published March 21, 2025 at 6:37 AM.