Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russian attacks on his country's energy sector were targeted last night against gas facilities that ensure supplies to the European Union, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.
Russia continues to supply gas to the EU via Ukraine under a transit agreement with the Russian company Gazprom, which expires in December. Ukraine's energy minister said last month that Kiev did not intend to extend or renew the agreement with Moscow that pays Ukraine for gas exports to the EU.
"The main target was the energy sector, various industrial facilities, both electricity and gas transit facilities, in particular those gas facilities which are crucial for ensuring safe supplies to the European Union," Zelensky said in his evening video message.
Ukraine's president, who has been campaigning to secure supplies of defense weapons systems from his international partners, said Ukrainian forces were able to shoot down some of the 34 Russian missiles of various types.
He did not specify what the specific objects were, nor whether the rockets hit them.
The Ukrainian state oil and gas company "Naftogaz" said Russia attacked its facilities, but no one was hurt and supplies to Ukrainian consumers and customers were not affected.
Maxim Kozycki, the governor of Lviv Oblast, which borders Poland, said his region was hit during the attack with cruise missiles and hypersonic "Dagger" missiles, although Ukrainian forces shot down three missiles.< /p>
He said two sites of critical energy infrastructure in the Stryi and Chervonograd region were damaged and caught fire, although emergency services quickly extinguished the flames.
Zelensky repeated his calls for Ukraine to be provided with defensive missiles, in particular the "Patriot" (Patriot), and stated that Ukraine needs at least seven such defense systems.
"The trajectories of the missiles and the nature of the strike were calculated by the Russian terrorists to make it as difficult as possible for our air defense system to operate," he said. "Every missile shot down today is a significant result," Zelensky added.