Kazakhstan is angrily denouncing and protesting the "deliberate attack" on critical energy transport infrastructure of the international Caspian Pipeline Consortium in the waters of Russia's port city of Novorossiysk, after on Saturday a naval drone sent by Ukraine severely damaged one of its three loading points.

Kazakhstan's Foreign Ministry said on Sunday, "We emphasize that the Caspian Pipeline Consortium plays an important role in supporting the stability of the global energy system."

It added: "We view what has occurred as an action harming the bilateral relations between the Republic of Kazakhstan and Ukraine, and we expect the Ukrainian side to take effective measures to prevent similar incidents in the future."

This marks a rare moment that the former Soviet satellite state in central Asia is directly calling out the Ukrainian government and military.

A key section of Caspian Pipeline Consortium near Novorossiysk has as a result of the attack been taken offline until repair and restoration works are completed.

The consortium's over 930-mile pipeline connects oil fields in western Kazakhstan and Russian offshore fields in the Caspian Sea to a marine terminal in Novorossiysk, which means the location serves as the main export route for Kazakh oil, and is one of the world’s largest oil conduits by volume.

Regional sources note that the pipeline transports about 80% of Kazakhstan’s oil exports. According to the consortium's confirmation of the weekend attack:

CPC said on Saturday that a November 29 naval drone attack on its terminal had “significantly damaged” Single-Point Mooring (SPM) 2 – essentially a floating buoy which connects to tankers to load oil.

“Further operation of Single Point Mooring 2 is not possible,” CPC said. “Loading operations and other operations were stopped [and] tankers were withdrawn from the CPC water area.”

“We believe that the attack on the CPC is an attack on the interests of the CPC member countries,” CPC said.

Moscow for its part decried the Ukrainian attacks as amounting to terrorism and further alleged that European powers are currently engaged in an intense hybrid war against Russia.

However, Ukraine can in turn point to constant and devastating Russian aerial attacks against its energy grid, ahead of what is likely to be a harsh winter - at a moment much of the country is under a rolling power blackout regimen.

Over in Europe, Hungary has also long complained of these Ukrainian attacks on pipelines and energy infrastructure. This summer crude oil flows from Russia to Hungary and Slovakia via the Druzhba pipeline suffered forced disruptions after Ukrainian drone strike crippled transformer stations and other elements.