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Russia attacks Ukrainian gas storage site; Ukraine ramps up power imports

An underground gas storage site in Ukraine was assaulted on Sunday in the latest wave of Russian missile strikes on power centers, while officials restored power in cities, purchased imports and enforced rolling blackouts to deal with shortfalls.

Ukraine's state-run Naftogaz energy company reported the attack on the gas storage website (UGS), but included that gas products to consumers had actually not been impacted.

Naftogaz CEO Oleksiy Chernyshov said equipment damaged in the strike was being fixed.

The circumstance will not critically affect the UGS operations because the gas is saved deep underground, Chernyshov wrote on Facebook.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy stated efforts to restore power products were under method in different regions, with the greatest difficulties in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city.

The country's energy ministry and suppliers said Ukraine ramped up imports of electricity and halted exports after the current series of Russian attacks, in which top energy producer DTEK lost 50% of its capacity.

Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, head of Ukrenergo, which operates Ukraine's transmission lines, stated the most recent wave of strikes had actually triggered damage of at least 90 million euros ($ 97 million).

Russia assaulted Ukrainian getting and transmission centers on Friday, triggering substantial blackouts in many areas, and energy centers in 3 Ukrainian regions were Attacked early on Sunday.

POWER CUTS, ROLLING BLACKOUTS

Zelenskiy, in his nighttime video address on Sunday, stated more than 200,000 citizens of Kharkiv, a frequent target of Russian attacks, were without trusted power. The network had actually been brought back in other places, he said.

Zelenskiy stated strict schedules for power usage remained in force in Kharkiv. DTEK, the biggest personal power company, stated rolling blackouts had been enforced in the port of Odesa.

Odesa regional governor Oleh Kiper, in a posting simply after midnight on the Telegram messaging app, said parts of the city lacked power after damage to infrastructure brought on by a. new night-time drone attack.

Emergency services were on the scene, but he gave no. further details.

The energy ministry said in a declaration: For the current. day, electricity imports are forecast at 14,900 megawatt hours. ( MWh). No exports are anticipated.

Ukraine imported 3,300 MWh a day before the attack on March. 22, with exports of 2,148 MWh.

Losses (from Friday's attack) have currently been assessed. and the DTEK group has lost 50% of its producing capacity, we. can say this information officially, Serhiy Kovalenko, the head. of circulation firm Yasno, said on nationwide tv.

Kovalenko said Russia had actually attacked two parts of the energy. system - generation and distribution, hitting both thermal and. hydropower plants.

The enemy struck hard at grid nodes and transformers, he. stated.

The ministry stated that Russia had actually attempted on Sunday to strike. an important energy facilities center in the Lviv region in. western Ukraine.

Devices caught fire and the center was de-energised. There were no casualties, the ministry stated.

The head of the Lviv region's military administration,. Maksym Kozytskyi, later stated firefighters had actually taken most of the. day to bring the blaze under control.

The ministry stated that power lines in the Kyiv region were. damaged and 1,400 households in 2 settlements had actually lost power.

Naftogaz's Chernyshov stated his business was currently working. on localising and removing the impact of the Russian attacks.

Most of Ukraine's gas storage capacity remains in the western. part of the country and it has the ability to keep around 30 billion. cubic metres of gas.

(source: Reuters)