Naftogaz acting head calls strikes terror against civilian population
The Friday morning strikes hit petrol stations operated by Ukrnafta, a state-owned oil and natural gas extraction company. Russia has increased its attacks on Ukrainian petrol stations in recent months, with facilities in the east and south repeatedly targeted, but this week’s strikes are the first to bring such attacks to the capital.
At the Ukrnafta station in the Pochaina neighbourhood in northern Kyiv, bystanders told reporters three people were injured: the manager of a nearby car wash, his wife and the driver of a passing car. The vehicle was left stranded by the side of the road, its windows shattered and seats spattered in blood. Witnesses said they heard two explosions, and local authorities later said Russia had carried out a double-tap attack on the facility.
Anastasiia Demchenko, 30, who works at a delivery company opposite the petrol station, described the period as one of the most difficult of the war. “This is probably one of the most difficult periods of the war because life is just like on a rollercoaster,” she said. “It feels like life is on the edge.”
At the second station hit Friday, in Desnianskyi district — one of the most densely populated parts of the capital — the manager of a nearby car wash, Fedir Lesovin, said it had been a miracle that no one had died in the blast. The air-raid siren, he said, gave workers time to run to a nearby shelter, and a customer waiting outside his business saw the incoming drone and also ran to safety.
Fedorenko, acting head of Naftogaz, rejected any military rationale for the strikes. “There is, and can be, no military objective behind such attacks,” Fedorenko said. “This is terror directed at the civilian population, at peaceful people.”
A list of 18 petrol stations in Kyiv expected to be hit by Russian drones began circulating on the messaging platform Telegram on Wednesday. The three struck so far were on the list.
Ukraine has also targeted Russian oil infrastructure in recent weeks. Ukraine’s special forces said this week that they had struck facilities at the Caspian Sea port of Makhachkala.
Kyiv has been pounded by daily drone and missile strikes since late August, at a time when Ukraine is running low on Patriot interceptors. A brief reprieve for the weekend visit of U.S. envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff ended on Monday.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was on an overseas trip intended to drum up international support and aid before what is expected to be a difficult winter. On Thursday, he met Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who offered support to help boost Ukraine’s drone stocks.