Russian soldiers enter mainland Ukraine, take control of natural gas station

Russian soldiers entered the territory of Ukraine’s mainland in the Kherson Oblast, adjacent to the Crimean Autonomous Republic, reported the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry in a March 15 statement. At about 1:30 p.m. local time, about 40 infantry troops parachuted from helicopters and landed on the Arabat peninsula. They were joined by three armed personnel carriers and 60 more infantry troops from six helicopters. All the soldiers wore uniforms that didn’t identify their loyalty. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry declared its “resolute and categorical protest,” while the Russian government said the military operation’s goal was to “defend the Chornomornaftogaz gas pumping station from possible terrorist acts,” reported the Ukrayinska Pravda news site. The next day, district prosecutors filed criminal charges in the illegal takeover of the Chornomornaftogaz gas distribution station.

Zenon Zawada: The incident marks the first occupation by Russian soldiers of Ukrainian mainland territory and is a very disturbing development that portends future such attempts. The Russians took over the station in an attempt to preserve natural gas supplies to Crimea from the Ukrainian mainland.

Strategically, Kherson Oblast is very important for Crimea: more than 80% of the water that Crimea is consuming comes from the Dnipro River through the Kherson region. About 40% of electricity and gas come from Kherson as well. Supplying all these resources from Russian territory is not possible, which makes “Russian Crimea” largely dependent on Ukraine. The Russians will very likely try to continue their invasion in other Ukrainian southern regions, yet the probability of their success there is much smaller than in Crimea, which has a majority ethnic Russian population.