RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE
Russia strikes key Ukrainian gas storage facility – MOD
Russia targeted Ukraine’s critical gas and energy infrastructure in response to recent attacks on Russian territory using Western-supplied long-range missiles, the Russian Defense Ministry announced early Thursday.
The combined strikes, carried out on the morning of January 15, involved drones and high-precision weaponry and successfully hit several targets intended to weaken facilities supporting Ukraine’s military-industrial complex.
“One of the successfully hit targets was the ground infrastructure of the largest underground gas storage facility in the city of Stryi in the Lviv region,” the ministry stated. According to previous media reports, explosions were also heard at various facilities in the Khmelnitsky, Vinnitsa, Ivano-Frankovsk, and Kharkov regions, although the Defense Ministry has not disclosed the full list of targets.
The ministry said the strikes were a direct response to Ukraine’s use of US-made ATACMS and British-made Storm Shadow missiles in attacks deep into Russian territory, as well as Kiev’s attempt to target a Russian gas compressor station in the Krasnodar region. The facility is essential for operating the TurkStream pipeline, which delivers Russian gas to Türkiye and Europe.
Following Wednesday’s strikes, Ukraine’s state energy company Ukrenergo confirmed widespread power outages in Kharkov, Sumy, Poltava, and Dnepropetrovsk due to what it described as a “massive missile attack.”
Moscow has labeled Kiev’s attempt to destroy the TurkStream pipeline facility an act of “energy terrorism,” with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accusing Washington of green-lighting sabotage in Europe.
In early 2024, Moscow added Ukrainian power plants to its list of legitimate military targets, citing increased drone incursions by Kiev into Russian territory. The incursions have primarily targeted energy infrastructure but have also hit residential areas. Most of Ukraine’s non-nuclear generation capacity has been disabled or destroyed in strikes since then, with Ukrenergo acknowledging that the country’s power system is struggling to recover.
The Russian Defense Ministry warned in its statement that “any provocations by the Kiev regime will not go unanswered.”
Ukraine’s Bilche-Volytsko-Uherske underground gas storage facility, located near the city of Stryi, is the largest of its kind in Ukraine and Europe, with a capacity of approximately 17 billion cubic meters. Strategically situated near Ukraine’s western borders with Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania, the facility has played a crucial role as a hub for the transit of Russian natural gas into the EU. Kiev halted the flow of Russian gas to European customers via Ukraine on January 1, after refusing to extend a transit deal with Russian energy giant Gazprom.
WESTERN PERSPECTIVE
Russia launches new missile barrage at Ukraine, targets gas infrastructure
Russia launched scores of missiles and drones at Ukraine on Wednesday, targeting gas infrastructure and other energy facilities in western regions in a new barrage against the struggling power system in the depths of winter.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that the Russian forces launched over 40 missiles during the morning attack and used more than 70 drones overnight.
Ukrainian air defences shot down 30 missiles and 47 drones, the air force said. Another 27 drones were "lost" in reference to Kyiv using electronic warfare to redirect them.
"Another massive Russian attack. It's the middle of winter, and the target for the Russians remains unchanged: our energy infrastructure," Zelenskiy said in a social media post on X platform.
"Among their objectives were gas and energy facilities that sustain normal life for our people."
The capital Kyiv also came under attack, with hundreds of residents taking shelter in underground metro stations across the capital, sleeping on yoga mats and sitting on folded chairs with their pets.
The governor of Ukraine's western Lviv region said two energy facilities, in the Drohobych and Stryi districts, were damaged. In neighbouring Ivano-Frankivsk, the governor said air defences were fending off Russian attacks on facilities.
The air force also said that gas infrastructure facilities in the Kharkiv region in the northeast were attacked.
Russian Defence Ministry said that its forces conducted strikes on Ukrainian energy facilities, successfully hitting all designated targets.
In a further statement issued after midnight, the Russian ministry said the strikes were in response to Ukrainian attacks using U.S. ATACMS missiles and British-made Storm Shadow missiles and an attack on Russia's Krasnodar region aimed at halting gas flows through the Turkstream pipeline network.
The ministry said its forces had made a successful strike on a large gas storage facility in the western Ukrainian town of Stryi.
GAS SUPPLIES STEADY, KYIV SAYS
Ukraine's oil and gas company Naftogaz said there were no outages, adding that "gas supplies to the population were uninterrupted."
Ukrainians use natural gas mainly for heating homes and cooking. The country uses gas stored over the summer months to use in winter, when daily production does not cover consumption.
Ukraine's underground gas storage facilities are located in the western part of the country, including in the Stryi area. Their role has grown since Kyiv refused to extend a gas transit agreement with Russia.
Russia has stepped up its bombardments of Ukraine's power sector and other energy infrastructure since March 2024, knocking out half of the available generating capacity and forcing long, rolling blackouts across the country.
Ukrainian cities, businesses, and residents rushed to install new generating capacities, including solar panels, batteries, generators, and other equipment to increase their energy independence and survive the critical cold months.
Zelenskiy, who visits neighbouring Poland on Wednesday, reiterated his pleas to Kyiv's Western allies to strengthen Ukraine's air defence.
"We have also discussed licenses for the production of air defence systems and missiles for them, which could serve as one of the effective security guarantees for Ukraine. This is both realistic and necessary to implement."
RT/Reuters
