Response to ATACMS strikes - Russian Armed Forces strike Ukrainian gas energy infrastructure facilit

Russia has targeted Ukraine’s critical energy infrastructure in response to recent attacks on Russian territory using Western-supplied long-range missiles, the Russian Defense Ministry announced early Thursday.

The combined strikes, carried out on the morning of January 15, involved drones and high-precision weaponry, and hit several facilities supporting Ukraine’s military-industrial complex.

“One of the successfully hit targets was the ground infrastructure of the largest underground gas storage facility in the city of Stryi in the Lviv Region,” the ministry stated.

The ministry said the strikes were a direct response to Ukraine’s use of US-made ATACMS and British-made Storm Shadow missiles in strikes deep into Russian territory, as well as Kiev’s attempt to target a Russian gas compressor station in Krasnodar Region. The facility is essential for operating the TurkStream pipeline, which delivers Russian gas to Türkiye and Europe.

The Ukrainian raids have primarily targeted energy infrastructure but have also hit residential areas. Most of Ukraine’s non-nuclear generation capacity has been disabled or destroyed in strikes since then, and Ukrenergo has acknowledged that the national power system is struggling to recover.

The Russian Defense Ministry warned in its statement that “any provocations by the Kiev regime will not go unanswered.”