KYIV (Reuters) – Russia attacked Ukrainian oil and gas facilities in eastern Ukraine overnight, causing a fire but no casualties, Ukrainian energy company Naftogaz said on Tuesday.
“Enemy missiles hit one of the facilities in the Kharkiv region. A large-scale fire broke out at the site, its elimination is currently underway. There are no casualties,” the company said in a statement.
Oleksiy Chernyshov, chief executive of state-run Naftogaz, said the damage would be assessed after emergency services finished their work and that everything that had been damaged would be restored.
Chernyshov said earlier this month that Russian attacks on Ukraine had damaged 350 natural gas facilities in the country though production should be largely restored by the end of the year.
He said at the time that the loss of gas production capacity amounted to a value of around $700 million.
Chernyshov said on Tuesday the latest damage would be assessed after emergency services finished their work and that everything that had been damaged would be restored.
Production of gas that is critical for heating gas is mainly concentrated in eastern Ukraine, scene of some of the heaviest fighting since Russia invaded in February.
(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
