On October 22, after a missile attack in Kiev, Ukraine, Russia, people visited a supermarket without electricity. Greb Galanich/Reuters
In recent weeks, Russia has bombed not only military base or transportation hubs, but also Ukraine's power distribution and heating networks.
As the winter weeks, Russian missile and drone attacks are attacking thermal power plants, substations, transformers and pipelines. Results: Rolling power outages, water pump stations were paralyzed, and Internet was generally interrupted.
"This is a terrorist act planned with the help of capable Russian energy experts, aiming to shut down Ukraine's energy system. That is, a complete power outage is to be achieved in the country," said Oleksandel Kharchenko, CEO of the Kiev Energy Research Center, on Friday.
A strategy emerged: As Russian troops suffered losses in September and this month, authoritatives appeared in the official media, urging Ukraine to retaliate in the dark, cold winter. Now it seems that this seems to be our goal.
The number of casualties is relatively small, but the losses are not large. Electricity infrastructure is an obvious static target, which is difficult to defend without a series of extraordinary regional defenses, and Ukraine has been begging for its Western allies.
On October 21, electricians repaired a power line damaged by shelling in Kharkiv, Ukraine. Kloda Kirkoin/Reuters
CEO Maxim Timchenko pointed out in a recent interview that Russia is very picky in targeting. He told Pravda that the purpose of the strike was not power generation capacity, but distribution gears: switching equipment and transformers, or output equipment from thermal power plants.
"I think the Russian military got the advice of their power engineer , and they explained how to do the most damage to the power system," he said.
Ukrainian authorities are clearly working to keep up with the growing list of repairs this month, with some infrastructure not being repaired.
