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RUSSIA VS UKRAINE - KYIV - An underground gas storage site in Ukraine was attacked on Sunday in the latest wave of Russian missile strikes on power facilities, said Ukraine's state-run Naftogaz energy firm, which added that gas supplies to consumers had not been affected.
The country's energy ministry and distributors said Ukraine ramped up imports of electricity and halted exports on Sunday after the recent series of Russian attacks, in which top energy producer DTEK lost 50% of its capacity.
Russia attacked Ukrainian generating and transmission facilities on Friday, causing significant blackouts in many regions, and energy facilities in three Ukrainian regions were also attacked early on Sunday.
Naftogaz CEO Oleksiy Chernyshov said equipment was damaged in the strike and repairs were proceeding.
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"The situation will not critically impact the UGS operations since the gas is stored deep underground," Chernyshov wrote on Facebook.
"The damaged surface infrastructure will need repairs, however, we have sufficient backup capacities in place to mitigate any immediate impacts.
Chernyshov said earlier on Sunday that the company was keeping up with all customer demand.
The energy ministry said in a statement: "For the current day, electricity imports are forecast at 14,900 megawatt hours (MWh). No exports are expected."
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 already been assessed and the DTEK group has lost 50% of its generating capacity, we can say this information officially," Serhiy Kovalenko, the head of distribution firm Yasno, said on national television.
He gave no more details. DTEK is Ukraine's largest private power-generating company.
'SUFFICIENT BACKUP CAPACITIES'
Kovalenko said Russia had attacked two parts of the energy system - generation and distribution, hitting both thermal and hydropower plants.
"The enemy hit hard at grid nodes and transformers," he said.
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The ministry said that Russia had attempted on Sunday to hit a critical energy infrastructure facility in the Lviv region in western Ukraine.
"Equipment caught fire and the facility was de-energized. There were no casualties. The consequences are being assessed," the ministry said.
It said that power lines in the Kyiv region were damaged and 1,400 households in two settlements had lost power.
Naftogaz's Chernyshov said his company was currently working on localizing and eliminating the impact of the Russian attacks.
"There are no critical consequences for the operation of the (underground) storage facilities, as the gas is at a considerable depth. The damaged part of the ground infrastructure will need to be restored, but we have sufficient backup capacities," he said.
Most of Ukraine's gas storage capacity is in the western part of the country and it can store around 30 billion cubic meters of gas.
