Russia targets Ukraine's gas facilities in biggest attack of the war, officials say

Russia launched its biggest attack of the war overnight into Friday against natural gas facilities in Ukraine run by the state-owned Naftogaz Group, officials have said.

Russia fired a total of 381 drones and 35 missiles in the attack, according to Ukraine's air force, in what officials said was Moscow's attempt to wreck the power grid ahead of winter and wear down the Ukrainian population in its all-out war, now well into its fourth year.

"This is deliberate terror against civilian facilities that provide gas extraction and processing for the normal life of people," Serhii Koretskyi, chief executive of Naftogaz, said in a statement.

"It has no military purpose. This is yet another act of Russian malice aimed solely at ... depriving Ukrainians of warmth in winter."

Russia aimed 35 missiles, many of them ballistic, and 60 drones at Naftogaz's gas extraction and processing facilities in the northeastern Kharkiv and central Poltava regions, some of which sustained critical damage, Koretskyi said.

Russia's Ministry of Defence said "all designated targets were hit" after its forces launched a mass strike using drones and guided weapons against Ukraine.

As winter has approached each year since the 2022 full-scale invasion of its neighbour, Russian forces have blasted Ukraine's power grid and other critical energy infrastructure.

Kyiv says it is an attempt to weaponise winter by denying civilians heat, light and running water.

Russia has recently escalated its strikes on the power grid, as well as on Ukraine's rail network, which is essential for military transport.

"Russia is terrorising civilians and trying to disrupt the heating season," Ukraine's Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said in a statement.

In Poltava, the attacks injured an eight-year-old child and two women, according to regional authorities.

One blast also shattered about half of the windows in the city's historic St Nicholas Church, which is listed as an architectural monument of local significance.

Ukraine has used its domestically produced long-range drones to attack energy targets in Russia, with drone strikes on the Orsk oil refinery, located about 1,400 kilometres from the Ukrainian border, Andriy Kovalenko, head of the Centre for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine, said Friday.

A Ukrainian drone attack also briefly halted operations at the Azot chemical plant, one of Russia’s largest, in Berezniki, more than 1,500 kilometres east of Moscow, officials said.