Ukraine says Russian attack threatens energy security

Russia launched dozens of missiles and 60 drones at Ukraine’s energy infrastructure on Friday, damaging three power plants and causing widespread blackouts, according to Ukrainian authorities.

President Zelenskyy has accused Russia of targeting two hydropower plants and threatening to cause an environmental disaster not only in Ukraine but also in neighboring Moldova.

The attack was the latest in a series of intensified attacks by Russia in March. Zelensky said that last week, Russia launched more than 190 missiles and 140 “Shahed” drones towards Ukraine. The Ukrainian Energy Ministry estimates that these attacks caused more than $11.5 billion in damage to Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private power company, reported that it would take months to repair the damaged power plant. Authorities say it will take years to repair the Dnipro hydropower station, which suffered eight attacks in last week.

Commenting on the losses, Ola Sabados of the Independent Commodity Intelligence Service, a British think tank, told VOA the Russians knew where to strike to inflict maximum damage.

“What’s unusual is that they know exactly what they’re going to hit, which suggests they’re working with energy experts on their side who know exactly what Ukraine’s systems are and may be helping the military hit Ukraine’s critical infrastructure,” Sabados said.

Both Russia and Ukraine’s energy systems were built during the Soviet era, and energy experts in each country were likely aware of vulnerabilities in the other’s transmission and generation systems, she said.

She also noted that Russian energy experts are known to have aided the Russian military on other occasions. For example, Russian energy company Rosatom is operating the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant occupied by the Russian military.

Many observers expect Russia to attack Ukraine’s energy systems as it did last year. Help from allies enables Ukraine to better cope with energy disruptions.

“The situation is very different from the last heating season, when there was a shortage of equipment,” Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, head of Ukrainian grid operator Ukrenergo, said in a video address on Tuesday. The main difficulty this time around, he said, was the time it took to repair it.

Ukraine will also be able to increase its electricity imports from Europe. On the eve of the war, Ukraine cut off its connection to the Russian power grid and achieved permanent synchronization with the European grid at the end of 2023. This has allowed Ukraine to significantly increase its electricity imports from Europe.

Despite these preparations, Ukraine remains vulnerable. The latest missile attack left hundreds of thousands without power, inflicting social costs and prompting the Ukrainian government to renew its appeal for allies to provide much-needed anti-aircraft munitions.

Bridget Brink, the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, called the Russian attack “barbaric” on X, adding, “Our assistance is needed now.” EU foreign policy chief Josep Bo Lehr called the attacks a “war crime” and urged the EU to speed up military aid to Ukraine.

Benjamin Schmidt, a senior fellow at the University of Pennsylvania who served as the U.S. State Department’s European energy security adviser, said Russia is known to have used energy as a weapon in Europe and is continuing its tactics now.

Schmidt said “Putin wants to make things as bad as possible for ordinary citizens” in the hope that Ukrainians will get fed up and push the government for a ceasefire, even if it means ceding territory to Russia. However, he added that this would not weaken the resilience of Ukrainians.

Schmidt said Putin also hoped to use the attacks to weaken Ukraine’s air defenses, while Ukraine was deprived of U.S. supplies.

“They want to try to gain momentum while the United States has been irresponsible … and has not yet approved the next tranche of military funding to Ukraine,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ukraine has stepped up drone attacks on Russian oil refineries. According to various estimates, the strike has paralyzed about 10% to 14% of Russia’s refining capacity.

last week, Financial Times According to reports, the United States has asked Ukraine not to attack Russian oil refineries. The United States has neither confirmed nor denied the report, but State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said at a press conference on Monday that “our position since the beginning of this war has been that we do not encourage or support Ukraine in “Strike outside its territory.”

Schmidt said attacks on Russian refineries could be a way for Ukraine to compensate for the inefficiency of Western sanctions on Russian oil.

“From a Ukrainian perspective, these are legitimate military targets, and in particular, Ukraine sees this as a way to essentially impose physical sanctions on Russian energy, and Western sanctions have not yet gone as far as they need to,” Schmidt said. Effect.” .