The increasingly long and protracted Russian war of aggression in Ukraine entered a new phase this past week when Russian shelling in the Zaporizhzhia region of eastern Ukraine damaged a gas pipeline that fed 17 Gas Distribution Stations (GDS) and 100 thousand consumers in Melitopol, Energodard, Dniprorudne, and other towns.

Employees of the gas transmission operator of Ukraine, GTSOU, localized the damaged section and blocked part of the gas pipeline branch to preserve gas resources for supplying gas to consumers.

Gas reserves remaining in the pipeline were exhausted on July 8. After that GDS were stopped, and the supply to consumers was terminated.

Also, last week, Russian shells damaged gas distribution stations in the south of Ukraine. In the Kherson region, one GDS was stopped. In the Mykolaiv region, the employees of GTSOU detected and localized the damage to the GDS gate valve caused by a Russian projectile.

According to GTSOU, as of July 11, 110 GDS (almost 8% of the total amount) in six regions of Ukraine remain out of service. The largest number of disconnected stations is in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, where, due to constant hostilities, specialists of Gas TSO cannot get to the place of damage to the main gas pipeline to restore gas supply to consumers.