Russia targets Kyiv gas facilities in latest attack - as Putin warns Trump of ‘escalation’
Around 35 missiles are said to have struck crucial Ukrainian gas facilities on Friday.
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Russia carried out its “biggest attack yet” on Ukrainian gas, hitting facilities in Kharkiv and Poltava according to Ukraine’s largest national oil and gas company.
Naftogaz said the Russian strikes had caused “critical damage” to production facilities in what they said was the largest strike since the Russian invasion in 2022.
“Facilities in Kharkiv and Poltava regions were hit with 35 missiles, many of them ballistic, along with 60 drones,” they said in a statement.
The Russian Defence Ministry said on Friday that its forces had carried out massive overnight strikes, targeting gas and energy infrastructure as well as Ukrainian military-industrial facilities.
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"Just before the heating season starts, Russians are looking for ways to cause more harm to our people," President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his evening address.
Serhii Koretskyi, chief executive of Naftogaz, said in a statement: "This is deliberate terror against civilian facilities that provide gas extraction and processing for the normal life of people.
"It has no military purpose. This is yet another act of Russian malice aimed solely at ... depriving Ukrainians of warmth in winter."
The attacks come only 48 hours after the announcement that Naftogaz would import around 500 million cubic meters of liquefied national gas (LNG) from the US via other European countries.
The latest strikes from Russia follow Vladimir Putin’s warning to US President Donald Trump on Thursday. The Russian leader said providing long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine risked “a new stage of escalation” in the conflict.
Russian strikes on Ukraine's gas infrastructure earlier this year cut domestic output by 40%.
As the fourth winter of war approaches, Russia has stepped up its attacks on Ukraine's energy sector and they have already triggered prolonged blackouts in several regions.
Kyiv's troops have also stepped up deep strikes on oil refineries deep in Russia in recent months in retaliation, prompting fuel shortages in some regions.