According to information from Kyiv, the heavy Russian airstrikes have hit around 30 percent of the Ukrainian energy infrastructure since Monday.
It is the first time since the war began in late February that Russia has “dramatically targeted” energy infrastructure, Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko told US broadcaster CNN.
Halushchenko said one reason for the attacks was that Ukrainian electricity exports would help European countries use less Russian gas and coal. The Ukrainian energy system is “still stable”. He urged other countries to “deploy air defense systems that could really help us protect our infrastructure.”
More than seven and a half months after the war began, Russia fired dozens of rockets at various parts of Ukraine on Monday. On Tuesday, Russia then shelled the western Ukrainian region of Lviv in particular. According to the local military administration, four substations were completely destroyed. After that, almost a third of the residents were temporarily without electricity.
According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Russian attacks were aimed in particular at his country’s energy infrastructure. In the past few days, he had called on the population to pay attention to electricity consumption and to reduce usage, especially during peak load times in the evening, so as not to overload the power grid. In the national average, it was possible to save a tenth of the energy on Monday, said Zelenskyj in his speech on Tuesday evening.
