Russia’s attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure have been so methodical and destructive that Ukrainian and Western officials say they are being directed by electricity specialists who know exactly which targets will inflict maximum pain.
Russia’s ongoing attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure have been so methodical and destructive that Ukrainian and Western officials say they are being directed by electricity specialists who know exactly which targets will inflict maximum pain on Ukraine’s grid.
The attacks are also proving enormously difficult to defend against, and officials said there was little they could do to harden the system against the strikes, which Russia has conducted with barrages of long-range missiles and attack drones.“The goal of this is to create the most possible obstacles to reconnect quickly,” Galushchenko said. “Every day, shelling to infrastructure makes us closer to bigger problems.
Kudrytskyi and others said they saw the spectral presence of their Russian energy counterparts in the decisions behind what is being hit, as though people just like them were planning the strategy. Russia and Ukraine’s grids are technically similar, since they were part of the same country until 1991, and Soviet-era infrastructure maps can still provide a road map to destruction.
Ukraine’s power generation capacity plunged in the early weeks of the war after Russia captured its Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, the largest atomic power stations in Europe. But with much of the country’s industry idled by the conflict, power demands are also far lower than during peacetime.Ukraine is still able to generate enough electricity for its needs — and until just two weeks ago, was actually exporting its surplus to European neighbors.
“I would like to be wrong, but if the intensity of the shelling is kept by the Russians, you could expect a really, really tough winter,” Lorkowski said in a phone interview from the Polish-Ukrainian border, where he was returning after a visit to Kyiv focused on aid efforts. “They’re trying to push the people to a crisis situation through limited or no access to electricity and heat during wintertime.