Repeated waves of Russian airstrikes, cruise missiles, and explosive drones are beginning to take their toll in Ukraine.
Over the past two weeks, the Russians have damaged or destroyed about 30% of the country’s energy infrastructure – its power generation facilities and its electricity transmission systems. More than a million Ukrainian households are now subject to power cuts for several hours at a time.
Why We Wrote This
Russia appears intent on destroying Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. Ukrainians are buckling down and facing up to a cold, dark winter. Camping stoves are at a premium.
That has prompted an international reaction – Washington and other Western capitals have promised more air defense systems so as to better protect Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. It has also led individuals on the ground to face up to the prospect of a dark and cold winter.
This weekend, the shops in Kyiv, Ukraine, were full of customers buying everything from candles to diesel-powered generators, with gas camping stoves, thermal underwear, and merino wool socks in between.
Lyudmila Morozyuk, a manager at a Kyiv megastore, remembers spending six months without water, heat, or light in her village in eastern Ukraine in 2014, when Russia backed separatists’ efforts to break away from Kyiv.
“I am not in a panic,” she says, looking ahead to the coming winter. “But I realize it will be hard.”
Under normal circumstances, it would have been a minor purchase – something for a picnic, perhaps. But after surviving three Russian missile attacks on their apartment block, Alisa Zosimova and her husband are counting on their new gas camping stove to give them confidence to confront what threatens to be a hard winter.
“I am worried that we won’t have light, heating, or water for a week or more,” says Ms. Zosimova, out shopping on the weekend in the wake of massive Russian missile and drone attacks that have damaged or destroyed one-third of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and subjected more than a million Ukrainian households to power cuts.
Another wave of attacks rocked the country Saturday morning. In Kyiv, power cuts of 4 to 5 hours are becoming the new norm. Street lighting on the capital’s major arteries has been reduced, and residential side streets sit in total darkness as the moon rises. There are no signs yet that morale is flagging, but the attacks have darkened the outlook for winter.
Why We Wrote This
Russia appears intent on destroying Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. Ukrainians are buckling down and facing up to a cold, dark winter. Camping stoves are at a premium.
“Russia aims to destroy the entire energy infrastructure of Ukraine,” says Volodymyr Kudrytskii, head of the board of Ukrenergo, the national electricity distributor, by email. “The enemy seeks to disrupt the heating season and leave Ukrainians without light and heat in winter,” when temperatures routinely drop well below freezing.
Pavlo Melnykov and Alisa Zosimova pose for a photo after shopping for emergency supplies. They worry that power cuts could deprive them of heat and light for days at a time.
“All regions are suffering from attacks on energy facilities in one way or another,” notes Antonina Atosha, spokeswoman for the Ukrainian power generator Dtek. Five of the six power plants under its control have been hit in the last two weeks, bringing the employee death toll since the war began to 94. “There is no doubt that their goal is a complete blackout.”
About 1,000 technicians, organized into 70 mobile repair teams, are working around the clock to restore the power transmission system, says Mr. Kudrytskii. They have been assisted by European electricity distributors that have donated generators, transformers, and other equipment needed for repairs, he says.
