Russia continues its massive bombardment of critical infrastructure in Ukraine, apparently with the cynical intent of rendering cities uninhabitable and breaking the morale of the populace who may face a cold and dark winter.
The latest Russian missile attack on the country’s energy supply led to outages and bottlenecks in electricity and water supplies in several cities on Monday. In Kyiv alone, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said 80 percent of residents were temporarily without water, and hundreds of thousands of homes were without power after Russia also launched a series of cruise missile attacks on the Ukrainian capital.
Although the power and water supply in Kyiv has largely been restored, the authorities in the capital are preparing for further power outages. “The worst thing would be if there was no electricity, no water and no district heating at all,” Klitschko wrote on Wednesday on the short message service Telegram. “In this case, we are preparing over 1,000 heating points in our city.” The sites are to be equipped with generators and essential supplies such as water.
According to the state energy supplier Ukrenergo, Ukraine is threatened with a humanitarian catastrophe in winter if a collapse in the power supply cannot be prevented. Ukrenergo Managing Director Volodymyr Kudrytskyi told the Guardian that “virtually all” larger non-nuclear power plants were hit by Russian missiles, as were more than 30 percent of the substations.
“This is the largest missile attack on power infrastructure in history. Therefore, the impact is enormous. Unfortunately, the situation is critical. They (the Russian armed forces, editor’s note) are trying to deliberately destroy the Ukrainian power system, and that supplies tens of millions of the population,” Kudrytskyi was quoted as saying by the British newspaper on Tuesday.
Should Russia continue the attacks, “the power outages in Ukraine will become longer and longer,” Kudrytskyi warned, adding that despite best efforts, the utility was unable to repair the power grid as quickly as it was destroyed. “It’s obviously a lot easier to launch rockets than it is to restore substations,” he said.
Against this background, Ukraine is seeking help in Europe against Russia’s “energy terror”. In addition to money and systems for restoring the energy supply, this also involves protection against new attacks.
Forty percent of the energy system is “severely damaged,” said President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at a meeting with EU Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson on Tuesday in Kyiv. Russia will do everything “to destroy the normality of life” and does not take into account the costs of this “energy terror”.
Zelenskyy calculated that the latest shelling on Monday “cost the equivalent of 2.3 million average Russian pensions”. “And that’s just for one attack.” Wednesday is the 252nd day of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.
“The position of the terrorists is absolutely transparent, and this challenge should be seen as a challenge for the whole of Europe,” Zelenyksy said. Moscow will propaganda present the difficulties of the winter as alleged proof of the failure of a united Europe. “That’s why we have to show the terrorists together that ‘failure’ is a word about them and not about Europe,” said Zelenskyj.
In view of the advancing Ukrainian troops, the Russian occupiers are relying on the destruction of sensitive energy infrastructure. The winter could be a test for Ukraine – also for its allies (read more about the Russian blackout strategy here).
In Kyiv, EU Energy Commissioner Simson condemned Russia’s “targeted” attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, which he said were “a cruel and inhumane tactic to cause human suffering as winter approaches”. She wants to do everything possible to “increase financial, technical and practical help,” she said on Twitter on Tuesday.
According to the Brussels authority, the Commission and the Ukrainian Ministry of Energy, among others, will launch a campaign in the coming days to mobilize further support from the private sector. The EU, the EU states and private companies have already supplied emergency energy equipment worth several million euros. “In view of the escalating attacks by Russia”, however, support must be increased.
French President Emmanuel Macron also sees an urgent need for action. Macron said on Twitter on Tuesday that he had assured President Zelenskyy “to increase our military support for Ukraine, especially with regard to its air defence”. The water and electricity infrastructure was “considerably damaged” by the Russian attacks. “Before winter, action must be taken.”
The Ukraine is also hoping for extensive help from Germany to get through the coming winter. The co-chair of the German-Ukrainian parliamentary group, Halyna Yantschenko, told the Reuters news agency last week that two lists of required goods drawn up by the Energy Ministry in Kyiv have been sent to the federal government. The wish lists therefore include devices for substations, commercial vehicles, cables, power generators and heaters.
When stern asked what additional aid was planned for Ukraine, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection (BMWK) announced on Wednesday that the Federal Government and the BMWK were in constant contact with the Ukrainian government and referred to previous statements on the subject . The specific content of the conversation is fundamentally confidential. A query from the star to the Foreign Office remained unanswered by Wednesday afternoon.
Time is of the essence, according to Ukrenergo Managing Director Kudrytskyi. The focus is now on keeping the lights on. “Before the missile attacks, the main goal was to provide as much energy as our customers needed,” Kudrytskyi told the Guardian. “But now we are talking about the survival of the system.”
Sources: The Guardian, The Kyiv Independent, The New York Times, Politico, Reuters, EU Commission, with material from the DPA and AFP news agencies
