The Trump administration took the bizarre step of warning the Ukrainian authorities that its strikes on a Russian Black Sea oil facility late final yr had impacted US investments in Kazakhstan, the Ukrainian ambassador to the US revealed Tuesday.
“We have been hearing that Ukrainian attacks to Novorossiysk affected some of the American investments which are being performed through Kazakhstan. And we have heard from Department of State that we should refrain from, from, you know, attacking American interests,” Amb. Olga Stefanishyna stated at a briefing.
Stefanishyna stated she had obtained a demarche, which is a proper diplomatic discover, from the US State Department over the matter. NCS has reached out to the State Department for remark.
The information comes on the fourth anniversary of Russia’s invasion with no finish to the brutal conflict in web site. US-brokered peace talks have proven little signal of a breakthrough. The uncommon transfer to concern the demarche seems to talk to the administration’s priorities and follows Trump’s choice to halt new navy support to Kyiv final yr.
The Ukrainian ambassador stated the US didn’t counsel Kyiv ought to chorus from attacking Russian navy and power infrastructure.
“It was related to the very fact that American economic interest was affected there,” she stated. “We have taken the note on that.”
In late November, Ukrainian drones struck the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, damaging not simply Russian pursuits but additionally a key pipeline which led to a major drop in Kazakh oil exports. Chevron is a serious shareholder within the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, which carries oil from Kazakh oil fields to the Black Sea for export.
Still, the communication got here as Russia was vastly increasing its personal missile and drone strikes on Ukrainian cities and power infrastructure within the midst of Ukraine’s coldest winter in a decade – assaults described by Ukrainian and European officers as a deliberate effort to inflict struggling on Ukrainian civilians.