Russia seeks to paralyze Ukraine by destroying its energy infrastructure – Technologist

For three weeks now, Russian drones and missiles have been systematically targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. The latest major attack hit the Kharkiv, Lviv, Odesa, Zaporizhzhia and Kyiv regions in the early hours of Thursday, April 11. South of the capital, the bombardments destroyed the Trypillia thermal power plant, the largest in the region, wiping out the production capacity of state-owned company Centrenergo following a previous strike that devastated the Kharkiv plant on March 22.

Only 18 of the 42 ballistic and cruise missiles aimed at the territory were intercepted, despite the Ukrainian president’s constant warnings in recent days that the country could run out of air defense systems. On Thursday, Volodymyr Zelensky reiterated his desperate appeal to his Western allies to provide him with the means to protect his infrastructure, arguing that otherwise, Russia “has a global license for terror.”

Thursday’s attack also damaged a thermal power plant and destroyed a transformer substation in the Kharkiv region, already severely weakened by recent bombardments. More than 200,000 residents of the eastern Ukrainian city, located not far from the border with Russia, were left completely without electricity.

Intensified bombing

In early April, Mayor Ihor Terekhov lamented that “almost all” of the region’s energy infrastructure had been destroyed. Since then, Kharkiv’s 1.3 million inhabitants – compared with 2 million before the war – have had to live with bombings and daily power cuts lasting several hours and spread out over different neighborhoods. At night, the city is plunged into darkness, lit only from time to time by cars that almost crash at every turn. Aerial alerts are constantly sounding. In addition to the targeted strikes, the city also suffers from an intensification of daily and deadly bombardments on its residential areas, at all hours of the day and night.

Ukraine had already faced a campaign of strikes that severely damaged its infrastructure in the winter of 2022-2023. But the attacks of recent weeks are of a different intensity. In addition to targeting the country’s entire energy distribution network, the Russian armed forces are also concentrating on its thermal and hydroelectric power stations. The largest private electricity supplier, DTEK, said it had lost around 80% of its production capacity throughout the country. “The Russians’ objective remains the same as it was in winter 2022,” said Maria Tsaturian, communications director of state-owned operator Ukrenergo. “But now they’re using a different strategy. They’re trying to destroy our system, piece by piece.”

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