Naftogaz has put 16 billion cubic metres of gas into underground storage before winter. It is the largest stock since 2020, acting chief Sergii Fedorenko told Reuters. Kyiv had set the winter floor at least 13.2 billion. Last season opened with under 14. The new figure clears the bar. It does not close the winter.

Fedorenko counted more than 400 strikes on Naftogaz sites so far this year — twice as many as in 2025. Production, processing, transport and thermal plants near the front have been hit. “This year, most of our facilities have come under attack. We are strengthening defences and digging in.” Every morning, he said, he checks his phone: was anything hit overnight?

The stock has also risen because less gas is being burned. Some factories shut after Russian strikes. Naftogaz puts 2026 demand at about 20 billion cubic metres, down from 21 in 2025. That is a larger reserve in a country using less, not a surplus of plenty. Forecasts, he added, hold only until the next attack.

Ukraine remains a net importer. It has not bought Russian gas directly since 2015; it takes it from Europe, mainly through Poland, Slovakia and Hungary. Hard frosts and strikes on storage forced a record 7.8 billion in imports in 2025 and the first quarter of 2026. For this season buying started earlier: more than a billion cubic metres contracted, a quarter of it LNG, for delivery from December through March.

Ukrainian storage is the largest in Europe, about 30 billion cubic metres. Kyiv has offered the EU a third of that capacity for European reserves. The gas sits more than a kilometre down, Fedorenko said; the storage tariff is, on his account, the lowest in the Union. It is an offer, not a signed deal.

Ukrainian law bars state companies from publishing operational energy data. The 16 billion figure comes from the chief’s interview, not from a daily bulletin. Winter, he warned, may be the hardest in nearly five years of war. The caverns are fuller. The pipes above ground are still in sight.

Image: centralniak, Kyiv — Pechersk and Darnytsia, 22 March 2011, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. The photograph shows the city that must be heated, not an underground store.

Sources consulted: Ucraina a acumulat în stocuri cele mai mari rezerve de gaze naturale din ultimii șase ani — News.ro; Exclusive-Naftogaz chief says Ukraine's gas reserves hit six-year high ahead of winter — Reuters.