Ukraine’s gas infrastructure has suffered its biggest Russian missile and drone attack of the war, officials said on Friday, increasing concerns for the country’s energy security and air defences as Moscow’s military intensifies aerial strikes ahead of winter.
Ukrainian state-owned energy firm Nafogaz said Russia fired 35 ballistic and other missiles and 60 drones at gas production facilities in the eastern Kharkiv and Poltava regions early on Friday, not all of which were intercepted by air defences.
“This was a deliberate act of terror against civilian facilities that provide gas extraction and processing essential for the normal life of people. There was no military purpose or rationale,” said Naftogaz chief executive Sergii Koretskyi.
“It was yet another display of Russian malice, aimed solely at disrupting the heating season and depriving Ukrainians of the ability to heat their homes this winter.
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“As a result of this attack, a significant portion of our facilities has been damaged. Some of the destruction is critical,” he added.
Ukraine’s biggest private energy company, DTEK, said it had halted work at several gas facilities in Poltava region, where thousands of residents were left without power after Russian strikes across the country that Kyiv said involved 35 missiles and 381 drones.
“Last night, Russia launched its largest strike yet on Ukraine’s gas production facilities ... The most important thing: no casualties,” said Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Svyrydenko.
“Russia seeks to terrorise civilians and undermine our energy security on the eve of the heating season. It will not succeed.”
The defence ministry in Moscow said its forces had “launched a massive strike using long-range precision weapons from land, air, and sea, as well as strike drones, against enterprises of the Ukrainian military-industrial complex and gas and energy infrastructure facilities that support their operations. The strike’s objectives were achieved. All designated targets were hit”.
Russia has destroyed swathes of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure since launching a full-scale invasion of its pro-western neighbour in February 2022, forcing millions of people to cope with extended blackouts that are particularly onerous during winters when the nights are long and freezing temperatures can take hold for weeks.
Fears for the cold months ahead are heightened this year by concerns over Ukraine’s stocks of air defence ammunition, the reliability of supplies from the United States, and reports that updated Russian ballistic missiles are becoming harder to intercept, even for the most advanced western systems such as the US-built Patriot.
Moscow has also ramped up production of a heavy “suicide” drone known as the Geran – a copy of the Shahed that Iran supplied to the Kremlin by the thousand – which explodes on impact and can now be jet rather than propeller driven. Russia now routinely launches hundreds of these, along with decoys, in the course of a night.
Ukraine also fears for the safety of its nuclear facilities: a Russian drone strike cut power to the decommissioned Chernobyl plant for several hours on Wednesday, and the occupied Zaporizhzhia atomic power station has spent more than a week working on emergency generators after shelling damaged electricity lines.
Russia claims ownership of the Zaporizhzhia plant and accuses Kyiv’s forces of shelling the area. Ukraine – which still has three working atomic power stations under its control – denies that.
“This is a dangerous game, and people on the other side should also understand that if they’re going to play it so dangerously, they still have operating nuclear power plants on their side,” Russian president Vladimir Putin said on Thursday evening.
“And what’s stopping us from retaliating in kind? Let them think about that,” he said.
