Kyiv (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – Officials stated that a Russian attack overnight cut the power to some areas of Ukraine’s southern Odesa region on Saturday morning. This incident is the most recent in a string of strikes on Ukraine’s energy system before the winter.
How does Russia continue targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure?When did Russia launch its deadliest attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure?
While authorities did not provide an estimate of people without power after the most recent strike, Ukrainian energy DTEK reported power outages in parts of the regional capital city. Later, DTEK said it was able to restore power to more than 240,000 households in the area.
“Last night, the enemy attacked energy and civilian infrastructure in the Odesa region,” regional governor Oleg Kiper said on Telegram. “Power engineers are making every effort to fully restore the power supply,” he also said.
Saturday’s outages occurred a day after a significant Russian strike that disrupted electricity in large parts of Kyiv and nine other regions. DTEK reported early Saturday that it had restored power to more than 800,000 households in the capital after that attack.
How does Russia continue targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure?
Since Russia invaded in 2022, it has targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure every winter, causing power and heating outages for millions and disrupting water supplies, which Kyiv considers a blatant war crime. Russia denies targeting civilians, claiming Ukraine uses energy sites to support its military, while Kyiv insists the strikes mainly target civilians.
These strikes target power plants, electrical grids, and increasingly natural gas facilities crucial for heating, aiming to cause widespread blackouts, disrupt heating, and undermine civilian morale.
When did Russia launch its deadliest attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure?
On October 3, Russia carried out its most extensive attack against Ukraine’s natural gas sector to date, targeting its critical facilities in the Kharkiv and Poltava regions with dozens of missiles and drones. This hit damaged infrastructure essential to the heating of millions of Ukrainian homes.
Moreover, Russia carried out a particularly large attack on August 26, 2024, firing 127 missiles and 109 drones at energy infrastructure in 15 Ukrainian oblasts, damaging power plants and substations and affecting the electricity grid.
Russia’s attacks significantly reduced Ukraine’s generating capacity to about 12-13 gigawatts from the 18 gigawatts needed and caused large-scale rolling blackouts and major disruptions to residential heating ahead of winter.
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