Russian military accuses Ukrainian army of blowing up Sudzha gas facility during Kursk retreat

MOSCOW, March 21 (Reuters) - Russia's Defence Ministry on Friday accused Ukraine of blowing up a major Russian gas pumping and metering station near the Ukrainian border as Ukrainian forces retreated from the Kursk region, parts of which they had held since August last year.

The ministry said the facility near the Russian town of Sudzha, once used by Gazprom to export gas via Ukraine to Europe, had been under the control of Kyiv's forces "until now" who had used it as a logistics base.

"The blowing up of an important Russian energy facility by Ukrainian army units retreating from the Kursk region is a deliberate provocation by the Kyiv regime," the ministry said in a statement.

"(This) should be viewed as part of a series of recent strikes against the energy infrastructure of the Russian Federation aimed at discrediting the peace initiatives of the president of the United States."

The Ukrainian military on Friday denied involvement in the attack and accused Russian forces of shelling it with artillery in an alleged false flag "provocation."