Russian missiles targeted power plants, transmission lines and aqueducts across Ukraine on Monday in a strategy now openly discussed in Russia:
drinking retaliation for battlefield losses in an attempt to cripple Ukraine’s critical infrastructure.
Immerse the cities in dark and complicating people’s lives with water cuts aims to sow panic behind Ukrainian lines as winter approaches, though it could have little immediate effect on the fighting, Ukrainian military officials and analysts say.
The lights went out on Monday in several cities, which local authorities resorted to continuous blackouts to avoid overloading the backup power lines.
The idea of freezing Ukrainians from submission is not new.
The Kremlin has been studying Ukraine’s energy networks for years and has tried to manipulate prices or reduce natural gas supplies to influence the country’s politics, an approach it is now pursuing with military force.
Twice in recent years, Russia has cut off natural gas supplies to Ukraine in the dead of winter.
By Monday afternoon, the bombings had hit 11 infrastructure sites across the country, Prime Minister Denys Shmygal said in a Facebook post.
Ukraine should prepare for blackouts and water supply disruptions, he said.
Regional officials are preparing for extensive repair work at power plants, hiring additional linemen and setting up common spaces heated with wood or coal stoves as an alternative option if Russia can cut heat and electricity in the cold winter months.
“As the Russians lose, they are firing rockets at civilian infrastructure to create panic in the rear and damage our army,” said Olexander Vilkul, the military governor of Kryvyi Rih, a city in central Ukraine that was one of the first targets of the Russia. infrastructure targeting strategy last month.
Targets
In that flurry of attacks, the missiles hit the Aqueduct of the city, the water pipes and canals of a dam, flooding the slums.
The attacks on Monday expanded the strategy.
By Monday afternoon, four regions – Lviv, Poltava, Sumy and Kharkiv – were powerless, officials said.
In Kharkiv, trolley buses and electric trams have stopped.
Electric trains from Kyiv headed west of the country did not leave the station.
Experts on Ukraine’s electricity grid and district heating have said it’s a tough target to shut down completely, so a demoralizing national freeze is unlikely to await Ukraine during the winter.
In Soviet times, the country was a center for hydroelectric and nuclear power generation and today it has approx double the capacity generation with respect to domestic demand.
Ukraine exports electricity to the European Union, but suspended exports on Monday after the attacks, according to the country’s energy ministry.
Missile strikes can cause temporary or regional blackouts, but are unlikely to plunge the entire country into obscurity, Ivan Plachkov, a former energy minister, said in an interview.
He added that they often have central heating systems that circulate hot water in neighborhoods backup systems incorporated.
Ukrainian municipal authorities have also prepared warm spaces heated with wood or coal stoves, where residents can move if their apartments lose heat.
“Ukraine is as prepared as possible for this scenario,” Plachkov said.
“People are preparing for winter. After these attacks, the fight will continue. “
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Source: Clarin
