Russia attacks Ukrainian gas facilities on October 3
Ukrainian officials said on Friday that Russia launched the largest since the war attack on Ukrainian state-owned Naftogaz gas facilities at night.
The Ukraine Air Force said Russia had launched a total of 381 drones and 35 missiles into Ukraine. Local officials said it was an attempt to disrupt Ukraine's power grid before winter arrived and weaken the Ukraine public's will to resist the war that has lasted for more than three years.
“This is a deliberate terrorist attack against civilian facilities providing natural gas mining and processing for the normal lives of the people,” Sergei Koretskyi, chief executive of state-owned Ukrainian gas company Naftogaz, said in a statement.
Russia targeted the Naftogaz gas mining and processing facilities in the country's second-largest city of Kharkiv and the central region of Portava, in the northeastern Ukraine, launching 35 missiles (many of which were ballistic missiles) and 60 drones, some of which were severely damaged, Koretsky said.
On October 3, after the Russian attack, Ukrainian firefighters were working to extinguish the fire.
The Russian Defense Ministry admitted that day that its troops used drones and guided weapons to launch a large-scale strike against Ukraine's military-industrial complex and the natural gas and energy infrastructure it supports. "All designated targets were hit," the ministry said in a statement.
The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation said in a statement on October 3 that “Russian forces used land-based, air-based and naval-based high-precision long-range weapons and attack drones” in the early hours of October 3 had carried out a cluster strike on Ukraine.
This is not only Russia’s retaliation against Ukraine’s ongoing attacks on its oil refineries and oil terminals over the past more than a month, undermining Russia’s capacity to aggregate energy exports, but also Russia’s usual operation ahead of the coming of the winter.
Since Russia launched a war against its neighbor (Ukraine) in February 2022, Russian troops have launched an attack on Ukraine's power grid every year as winter approaches. Ukraine says this is an attempt by the Russians to make winter a weapon that consumes Ukraine by depriving civilians of heating, lighting and running water.
Russia has recently stepped up its crackdown on Ukraine's power grid and railway networks. The railway network is crucial for military transportation.
"Russia is intimidating civilians and trying to disrupt the heating season," Ukraine Prime Minister Yulia Sviridenko said in a statement.
According to Ukrainian authorities, in Portava, the attack injured an eight-year-old child and two women. One of the explosions also shattered the windows of about half of the historic building of the city's St. Nicholas Church of local importance.
On October 3, Russian attacks on Ukrainian energy facilities caused fire.
At the same time, Ukraine used its domestic long-range drones to counterattack against Russia.
Andrei Kovalenko, director of the National Security and Defense Commission’s Anti-Fake Information Center, said on Friday that the Ukrainian military used drones to attack a Russian oil refinery in Orsk, about 1,400 kilometers (900 miles) from the Ukrainian border.
Officials said a drone attack in Ukraine also led to a short-term shutdown of one of Russia’s largest fertilizer plants – the Beleznik nitrogen fertilizer plant, located more than 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) east of Moscow.
The Russian Defense Ministry said on Friday that Russian air defense forces shot down 20 Ukraine drones overnight, mostly over the Black Sea.