Update: Russia’s Defense Ministry accused Ukraine of “deliberately blowing up” the Sudzha gas metering station. In a statement, the ministry claimed that Ukrainian forces detonated the facility around 12:20 a.m. on March 21 while retreating from the region. The ministry called the incident a “deliberate provocation” and framed it as part of a broader effort to “undermine U.S. President Donald Trump’s peace initiative.”
The Sudzha gas metering station in Russia’s Kursk region, which had served as a transit point for Russian gas deliveries to Europe, was attacked overnight.
Pro-war and pro-Kremlin Russian Telegram channels were the first to report the incident, accusing Ukraine’s Armed Forces of carrying out the strike. Among those making the claim were state media correspondent Andrey Rudenko, the Voenkory Russkoy Vesny Telegram channel, and the Telegram accounts Mash and Shot.
Ukraine’s General Staff rejected the allegations as “baseless,” asserting that Russian forces had shelled the facility themselves.
“Russian forces continue to produce numerous fakes and seek to mislead the international community,” the General Staff said in a statement. “We urge the public to trust only official sources, verify information, and not fall for manipulation.”
As The Insider reported, NASA’s fire detection map showed a major blaze in the vicinity of the Sudzha gas station late on March 20, registering the fire at approximately 11:22 p.m. Moscow time.
Following Tuesday’s call between presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, the Kremlin said that Putin had agreed to a 30-day halt on strikes against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and had issued corresponding orders to the military. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky later confirmed that Ukraine would support the proposed pause — a position he reiterated in his call with Trump on Wednesday.
