Russian strikes have halted more than half of Ukraine's gas production ahead of winter - Bloomberg
At the beginning of this week, Kyiv informed its allies that a powerful Russian shelling aimed at the Kharkiv and Poltava regions on October 3rd destroyed approximately 60% of the country's gas production. As reported by ThePublic.info, this was reported by Bloomberg.
Since the beginning, the Russians have been actively attacking Ukraine's gas extraction. If these attacks continue, by the end of March Ukraine will need to purchase about 4.4 billion cubic meters of gas at a cost of nearly 2 billion euros. This is equivalent to almost 20% of Ukraine's annual gas consumption.
Following Russian attacks, Ukraine has appealed to its partners – the G7 countries – for urgent equipment to repair and reiterated its requests for additional air defense systems. Ukraine also seeks to obtain additional funds to pay for gas imports.
Recently, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated that Russia will try in every way to prevent Ukraine from extracting its own gas. He also admitted that protecting all of Ukraine's gas production will be difficult, so funds for gas imports need to be sought.
This year, Ukraine has imported 4.58 billion cubic meters of gas from foreign suppliers. Although initially Ukraine estimated that its import needs would reach 5.8 billion cubic meters by the end of the year, this week it informed allies that this figure could increase due to Russian attacks.
The exact volume of necessary gas will depend on several factors, including the speed of repairing damaged facilities and the consequences of new Russian attacks, said Ukraine's Minister of Energy, Svitlana Grynchuk.
The main risk for Ukraine is that Russia will continue massive attacks, leading to even greater destruction of gas production. Russia intensified its attacks after Ukraine ceased transit of Russian gas through its territory.
Currently, there is growing concern in Ukraine that by the end of winter, it will not be able to repair what the Russians have damaged. Repair costs are also increasing. According to sources, the expenses for emergency repairs amount to about 758 million euros.
In addition, Ukraine needs funds to purchase weapons for defense against Russian attacks. This week, Zelensky called on allies to pay for another batch of American weapons. Sources say that Europe is already considering providing additional assistance to Ukraine's energy sector.
