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Gas pumping station in Russia goes up in flames

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Video shows explosion before big fire erupts

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Russia and Ukraine accuse each other

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Incident a blow to proposed moratorium on energy attacks

(Recasts, adds new Ukrainian and Russian comments throughout)

By Dmitry Antonov and Andrew Osborn

MOSCOW, March 21 (Reuters) -

Russia and Ukraine accused each other on Friday of blowing

up a Russian gas pumping station in a border area where

Ukrainian troops have been retreating, amid talks over a

proposed U.S.-backed moratorium on attacks on energy

infrastructure.

Video footage showed a blaze at the Sudzha facility,

which is located inside Russia several hundred metres from the

Ukrainian border.

It is inside a pocket of Russian territory that had been

captured by Ukrainian forces last year, but which Moscow has

mostly recovered in heavy fighting in recent weeks. Russian

troops pushed Ukrainian forces out of the nearby town of Sudzha

last week.

Russia's defence ministry said Ukraine's troops had left

the pumping station and blown it up in their retreat. Moscow

described this as a violation of the moratorium on attacks on

energy infrastructure, which it said it has abided by since a

phone call between President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President

Donald Trump on Tuesday.

Kyiv said Russian forces had blown up the facility

themselves as a provocation, describing Russia's accusations as

fake.

Putin agreed to the pause in attacks on energy

facilities during his phone call with Trump, when Putin rejected

a proposal for a more comprehensive 30-day ceasefire. Kyiv says

it is prepared to accept the proposal if hammered out formally

in talks.

Russia's Investigative Committee, which probes serious

crimes, said it had opened a criminal case over what it called

"an act of terrorism" which had done "significant damage" to the

gas transit facility, which once took Russian gas to Europe.

The Ukrainian military accused Russian forces of

shelling it with artillery in a false flag "provocation".

"The Russians continue to produce numerous fakes and

seek to mislead the international community," the Ukrainian army

General Staff said in a statement.

Andriy Yermak, the Ukrainian president's chief-of-staff,

said: "Russian attempts to deceive everyone and pretend that

they are 'adhering to the ceasefire' will not work, as the fake

(news) about the strikes on the gas station will not work."

Reuters could not independently verify the accounts of

the situation at the plant or the cause of the blast.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that

Putin's order for Russian forces to temporarily halt attacks on

energy infrastructure in Ukraine remained in force, and the

Sudzha explosion showed Ukraine could not be trusted to keep its

word.

Separately, a new explosion rocked an oil depot in

Russia's southern Krasnodar region on Friday where firefighters

had been trying to extinguish a blaze that had broken out on

Tuesday after a Ukrainian drone attack hours after Putin spoke

to Trump.

"During the extinguishing process, due to depressurisation

of the burning tank, there was an explosion of oil products and

release of burning oil," Russian regional authorities said on

the Telegram messaging app.

The fire spread to another tank, and the fire area increased

to 10,000 sq metres (108,000 sq feet), they added - more than

twice the original size of the blaze. More than 450 firefighters

were trying to tackle it, and two had been injured.

Russia has pounded Ukraine's energy grid throughout the

war, causing frequent blackouts affecting civilians and

industry, arguing that civilian infrastructure is a legitimate

target because it helps Ukraine's war effort.

More recently, Kyiv has also been launching attacks on

Russian oil and gas targets, which it says provide fuel for

Moscow's forces in Ukraine and funds Russia's military.