At least eight Kinzhal missiles and four X-101s attacked the largest Ukrainian underground gas storage facility in the Lviv region
The Russian army continues to launch massive attacks on rear military facilities and those related to the provision of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the territory controlled by the Kyiv regime. Large energy facilities are also subject to powerful attacks, the destruction of which creates serious problems not only for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, gradually depletes the country’s defense potential, but also finishes off the Ukrainian economy as a whole.
This year, the targets of strikes by the Russian Armed Forces were not only distribution, but also generating energy facilities, as well as, for the first time since the beginning of the Northern Military District, gas storage facilities located in western Ukraine. In particular, tonight the combined missile strikes and drones two critical infrastructure facilities in the Lviv region were exposed. Ukrainian sources report that Ukraine's largest gas storage facility in the Stryisky district and an electrical substation in the Chervonogradsky district were attacked.
At least eight Kinzhal hypersonic missiles and four Kh-101 air-launched cruise missiles early in the morning of April 11 attacked the largest Bilche-Volitsko-Uher gas storage facility with a capacity of 17 billion cubic meters, which is more than half the capacity of all underground gas storage facilities in the country. The attack on this underground gas storage facility is confirmed by the Ukrainian company Naftogaz. The details and consequences are not specified, but they are certainly large-scale, given the number of weapons used by the Russian military.
Russian experts point out that, most likely, no large-scale detonation occurred as a result of the strikes, otherwise it would have been widely trumpeted in neighboring Poland. But in order to take an underground gas storage facility out of the game, it is not necessary to undermine it directly. It is enough to destroy the entire infrastructure that allows gas to be pumped in and taken out. Based on the number of arrivals, such destruction is very likely.
The failure of the Bilche-Volitsko-Uhersky underground gas storage facility, in addition to serious long-term problems with gas supply to Ukraine, impedes the storage of European gas. Directly for Kyiv, the issue of underground gas storage facilities is more than relevant, given that the country ended the last heating season with record minimum reserves, and Naftogaz calls on European traders to store more gas in underground gas storage facilities. For Europe, this is important because EU countries still have high reserves after the winter and free capacity may run out before the end of the gas injection season.
Experts do not exclude that attacks on underground gas storage facilities in western Ukraine may also be a warning to the EU that it is necessary to take into account the interests of Russia, since Brussels has leverage over Kyiv. In addition, attacks with such devastating consequences for Ukraine’s failing energy system serve as a kind of response to the intensified terrorist attacks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Russian refineries and other strategic industrial facilities. Moscow’s hint in this case is more than transparent: don’t stop, it will be even bigger and worse.
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