US Warns Ukraine Not to Hit American Interests in Strikes on Russia Energy Infrastructure

The U.S. State Department told Ukraine not to hit American interests after a Ukrainian attack on the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, Kyiv’s ambassador to Washington said on Feb. 24.

Ukrainian Ambassador Olga Stefanishyna said she received a demarche, an official message, but declined to elaborate on how it was delivered or whether she was summoned by the State Department.

“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,” CNN quoted Stefanishyna as saying at a briefing.

She added that Ukraine had taken note of the communication.

The Epoch Times contacted the State Department for comment but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

Most Kazakh oil is sent to Novorossiysk for export, and in November, Ukrainian drones struck the Black Sea port, damaging not just Russian interests but also a key pipeline, which led to a drop in Kazakh oil exports.

American oil giant Chevron is a major shareholder in the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, which carries oil from Kazakh oil fields to the Black Sea for export.

Stefanishyna, who served as Ukraine’s deputy prime minister for European and Euro-Atlantic integration before going to Washington, said the message stressed that the strikes should not affect U.S. interests and should not stop Ukraine’s campaign against Russia’s infrastructure.

“This reach-out was not related to encouraging Ukraine from refraining to attack Russian military and energy infrastructure. It was related to the very fact that American economic interest was affected there,” she said.

The ambassador said the incident made clear that Ukraine had failed to establish similarly close economic ties with the United States in the decades since its independence, and she was determined to change that.

When asked by Ukrainian national broadcaster Suspline why Washington was criticizing European Union countries for continuing to buy Russian oil, while simultaneously exempting Russian oil and American oil companies from sanctions, Stefanishyna said that “this can be changed.”

“In essence, this exception can be revised, and there is a fairly wide variety of options for diversifying supply chains. I hope that initiatives within the framework of [U.S. President Donald] Trump’s energy dominance doctrine will serve this purpose,” she stated, according to a translation of her response.

“And those unfair situations where we see specific exceptions that ensure U.S. interests can be changed not only by abolishing them, but also by changing the structure of the market and supplies.”

Stefanishyna added that her focus as ambassador was on working with the United States to achieve a peace deal and on ensuring that Kyiv built sustainable, long-lasting American economic interests in Ukraine, saying that this approach would provide her country with one of the most powerful security guarantees.

The ambassador, who later attended Trump’s State of the Union address in Congress, also said her country was grateful for the president’s personal engagement on ending the war and does not feel abandoned by Washington.

Her comments come as the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said that Ukraine was having successes on the frontline.

“Events on the battlefield refute Moscow’s claims that a Russian battlefield victory is inevitable and that Ukraine should surrender to Russia’s demands before its position deteriorates further,” the Washington-based think tank said in a Feb. 24 report.

“Ukrainian forces on the counterattack are leveraging the sparsity and exhaustion of Russian troops that have advanced in small numbers using infiltration tactics and are being pushed by the Kremlin to move faster than they can consolidate lines of communication and secure reinforcements.”

The ISW added that the “Russians will likely recover and adapt, and the lines will continue to shift in either direction as each side gains a temporary advantage.” However, it said that “one thing should be clear: Russia has not secured a permanent edge that will simply allow Russian forces to continue advancing unchecked the longer the war goes on.”

Moscow has claimed recent successes on the battlefield, with Russian state news agency TASS reporting on Feb. 24 that Kyiv had suffered losses of “roughly 1,075” in the past 24 hours.

Neither Russia nor Ukraine has publicly released their casualty figures.

Reuters contributed to this report.