Russian missiles hit an underground gas storage (UGS) site Sunday in western Ukraine, the latest attack in a wave of Russian missile strikes on the country’s energy infrastructure.
Naftogaz CEO Oleksiy Chernyshov said that equipment was damaged in the strike and that repairs were proceeding.
"The situation will not critically impact the UGS operations since the gas is stored deep underground," Chernyshov wrote on Facebook.
"The damaged surface infrastructure will need repairs; however, we have sufficient backup capacities in place to mitigate any immediate impacts,” he said, adding that the company was keeping up with customer demand.
The massive Russian strikes have impaired the country’s energy infrastructure, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday in his nightly video address.
“Over the past week, from Monday to today, Russian terrorists have used nearly 190 missiles of various types and almost 140 Shahed drones. Also, they launched almost 700 guided aerial bombs. There has not been a single week in the more than two years of this war when Russia refrained from terror,” he said.
'Extremely difficult'
Zelenskyy added that power was being restored in parts of the country and noted that teams were working nonstop in the eastern city of Kharkiv to bring back electricity and heat to people without power. “The situation is extremely difficult. More than 200,000 customers – apartments and houses – in the city of Kharkiv and one of the districts of the region are without stable power supply and are subject to rather tough electricity schedules,” he said.
The country's energy ministry and distributors said Ukraine ramped up imports of electricity and halted exports Sunday after the recent spate of Russian attacks on Ukraine’s infrastructure, in which Ukraine’s top energy producer, DTEK, lost 50% of its capacity.
Russian air defense systems destroyed 22 Vampire missiles launched by Ukraine at Russia's Belgorod region, the Russian defense ministry said in a statement Sunday.
The Ukrainian military said it hit two large Russian landing ships in attacks on the annexed Crimean Peninsula early Sunday, along with a communications center and other infrastructure used by the Russian navy in the Black Sea. The statement did not say how the targets were hit.
A Moscow-installed official in the region reported a major Ukrainian air attack and said air defenses had shot down more than 10 missiles over the Crimean port of Sevastopol.
Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Russian-installed governor of Sevastopol, said on the Telegram messaging app that a 65-year-old man was killed when three homes were hit by shrapnel.
Razvozhayev said transport infrastructure, including passenger boats and buses, was partially damaged.
The Reuters news agency could not immediately verify the extent of any damage.
Polish demand
Poland said Sunday that it would demand that Russia explain “a new violation of airspace” after a Russian missile strayed briefly into Polish airspace during Moscow's latest attack on Ukraine.
In the incident in question Sunday morning, which targeted the Ukrainian capital, a missile breached Polish airspace by about two kilometers before returning to Ukraine, according to a spokesperson for the Polish army. The incident prompted Poland, a NATO member, to activate F-16 fighter jets.
The head of Kyiv’s military administration said that Russia used cruise missiles launched from Tu-95MS strategic bombers in the attack. It wasn’t immediately clear if Russia intended for a missile to enter Poland’s airspace.
"Polish airspace was breached by one of the cruise missiles fired in the night by the air forces ... of the Russian Federation," the Polish army said on X, formerly known as Twitter, adding, "The object flew through Polish airspace above the village of Oserdow (Lublin province) and stayed for 39 seconds."
Reuters quoted Polish Foreign Ministry spokesman Pawel Wronski as saying, "We ask the Russian Federation to end its terrorist airstrikes against the population and territory of Ukraine, to end the war and to focus on the country's own internal problems."
Some information for this report came from Reuters, The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse.
