By Pavel Polityuk and Anastasiia Malenko
KYIV (Reuters) -Ukrainian natural gas production facilities were damaged in a Russian attack on Ukraine's central Poltava region overnight, the state-run oil and gas firm Naftogaz and Energy Minister German Galushchenko said on Tuesday.
"Naftogaz Group's production facilities in the Poltava region were damaged. Fortunately, there were no casualties," the company said in a statement.
Naftogaz "is taking all necessary measures to stabilise the gas supply situation in the Poltava region", it added.
Ukraine's largest private energy company DTEK said that its gas production facility in the Poltava region was also hit.
"The facility is out of operation. Damage and destruction are being assessed," it said on Telegram.
The Ukrainian air force said Russia had carried out a combined attack, using 19 cruise, ballistic and guided missiles against gas production facilities in the Poltava region.
No missiles were reported shot down.
Poltava's regional military administration said that nine settlements in the Myrhorod district had been left without gas.
Russia, which previously focused its missile and drone attacks on the Ukrainian electricity sector, has in recent months sharply stepped up its attacks on Ukrainian gas storage facilities and production fields.
Ukraine's underground gas storage facilities are located in the west, while the main production capacity is in the east, in the frontline Kharkiv region, as well as in the Poltava region.
The state-run operator of the gas transmission system said Ukraine would likely increase natural gas imports to more than 16.7 million cubic metres (mcm) on Tuesday from 16.3 mcm on Monday.
Ukraine consumes 110-140 mcm of gas a day in winter and consumption is covered almost equally by gas production and reserves from storage facilities.
However, the former head of Ukraine's gas transmission system said that reserves in storage were close to critically low and this significantly reduced the ability to extract enough gas for daily consumption.
Both the drop in gas production and difficulties with extraction from emptied underground storage facilities might force Kyiv to increase the volume of imports.
The operator data suggested Ukraine would import 7.6 mcm of gas from Hungary, 7.3 mcm from Slovakia and 1.8 mcm from Poland.