Russia plans to strike underground gas storage facilities in Ukraine
The Russian Armed Forces plan to strike underground gas storage facilities in Ukraine. This may result in Kyiv having fewer and fewer resources to bargain with the West.
Photo: commons.wikimedia.org by Press Service of the Western Military District, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Missile strike
The Russian army launched a missile strike on the city of Stryi in Ukraines Lviv region, where a large underground gas storage facility (UGS) is located. The head of the Lviv regional administration, Maksym Kozitsky, confirmed such reports.
There is also a large railway junction in Stryi. The railway junction is used for the supplies of Western weapons to Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky previously offered Western countries to store their gas in Ukrainian underground gas storage facilities, Tsargrad publication said. Zelensky believed that Ukraine had the infrastructure that could be useful to Kyiv’s “partners”. However, the attack on the UGS facility in Stryi disrupted Zelensky’s project before it could be formalized.
A similar situation has developed with lithium.
Lithium is an expensive and highly sought-after metal. Zelensky offered the US administration to take over the Ukrainian lithium deposit in exchange for increased military support. However, the Russian army later took control of the settlement of Shevchenko, where this deposit is located. Zelensky thus lost access to the asset that he could use to bargain with the US.
The destruction of the underground gas storage facility will strike a major blow to Ukraine’s economy, let alone the fact that gas shortages in the middle of winter can seriously undermine the production of weapons for Armed Forces of Ukraine.
At the same time, Ukraine has no other resource to replace natural gas with. The country’s only coal mine in Pokrovsk suspended operations due to hostilities nearby. If the Russian army takes control of Pokrovsk, Ukraine will be completely deprived of its coal.
Details
Natural gas is a commodity that can be stored for an indefinite period of time in natural gas storage facilities for later consumption. Gas storage is principally used to meet load variations. Gas is injected into storage during periods of low demand and withdrawn from storage during periods of peak demand. It is also used for a variety of secondary purposes
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