Crossroads Asia | Diplomacy | Central Asia

Ukraine Rebuked by Washington Over Caspian Pipeline Consortium Strikes

Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.S. said the complaint cited the risks posed to “American investments which are being performed through Kazakhstan.”

Days after Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev traveled to Washington to participating the in inaugural meeting of U.S. President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, the Ukrainian ambassador to the United States said that Kyiv had received a formal demarche from the United States related to its attacks on the Caspian Pipeline Consortium’s oil terminal at Novorossiysk, a Russian city on the Black Sea.

Ambassador Olga Stefanishyna, speaking on February 24 – the fourth anniversary of the Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine – specified that the U.S. complaint cited the risks posed to “American investments which are being performed through Kazakhstan.”

Stefanishyna did not state when she received the demarche, but the timing of her comments – as the war enters its fifth year and just after the Kazakh president came through Washington for the second time in four months – can’t be missed.

Around 80 percent of Kazakhstan’s oil exports pass through the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, which connects to the global market through Russia’s Novorossiysk port. As an important node in Russia’s energy business, the CPC has become a target of Ukrainian strikes over the last few years. 

Most recently, in January two oil tankers were the target of Ukrainian drone strikes. According to a Reuters, one of the vessels was scheduled to load oil from Tengizchevroil, while the other was scheduled to take on oil from the Karachaganak field.

Tengizchevroil is a joint venture between the American oil giants Chevron (50 percent), ExxonMobil (25 percent), Kazakhstan’s KazMunayGas (20 percent), and Russia’s Lukoil (5 percent.)

In November 2025, Kazakhstan issued a rare formal protest following a strike on the CPC, characterizing them as an “act........

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