Keep bombs, repair, repeat – Ukraine’s gloomy efforts to restore power

KIEV, Ukraine — Russian gunfire has blasted the power grid in the recently liberated Ukrainian city of Kherson, authorities said Thursday, cutting power to desperate residents and illustrating the challenge facing the entire country:

As teams scramble to restore basic services, new attacks threaten to undo their work.

“Ukraine’s energy system is under constant Russian fire,” said Andriy Herus, head of the national energy and housing committee.

Moscow’s concerted assault on the plants and equipment that Ukrainians depend on for warmth and light as winter approaches has drawn condemnation from world leaders, with some suggesting it could be a war crime.

But on Thursday, as Ukrainian authorities warned, Russia was preparing launch another wave of rocket attacks on infrastructure, the Russian foreign minister insisted that the electricity grid was nothing more than a legitimate military target.

Hours after Ukrainian authorities announced that 6 million people across the country were still without electricity due to air strikes, the foreign minister, Sergei Lavrovsaid Russia was using high-precision weapons against energy facilities that support combat operations and are used “to supply Ukraine western weapons to kill the Russians.”

The Ukrainian military said its forces have their own autonomous power supply and the attacks did not affect their combat capability.

And it is civilians who have borne the brunt of the Russian tactic of trying to weaponize cold and darkness into weapons of war, though its effectiveness may depend on how harsh the coming winter is.

Ukraine often suffers from freezing winters.

Average temperatures between December and March range from 23 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 5 degrees Celsius) to 36 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius), according to the World Bank Group, though it can get much colder.

With daytime temperatures in the capital Kiev hovering around freezing on Thursday, the city’s mayor advised residents to consider a temporary evacuation.

“I appeal to Kiev citizens who can – who have relatives, acquaintances in the suburbs, in private houses where they can live temporarily – to consider these options,” mayor Vitali Klitschko told a security forum.

It was the latest sign that the Ukrainian authorities are increasingly concerned as winter takes its toll.

They have asked for help from the United States and Europe and are preparing centers where civilians can find heating, electricity and Internet access.

In a speech this week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky tried to rally the population.

“We will also overcome this challenge of war this winter, this Russian attempt to use the cold against people,” he said.

On Thursday, British defense intelligence officials said the attacks on Ukraine’s infrastructure appeared to be the first time Moscow had put into practice a military doctrine it has adopted in recent years known as Strategic operation for the destruction of critically important targets, or SODCIT.

“Russia envisioned SODCIT as the use of long-range missiles to attack an enemy state’s critical national infrastructure, rather than its military forces, to demoralize the population and ultimately force state leaders to capitulate.” he said said the British Ministry of Defence.

In this case, according to British officials, the tactic may be less effective because it was only used six months into the war, when Russian missile stocks were depleted and the Ukrainian population was able to prepare.

However, in Kherson, the battered city where the new infrastructure attacks have taken place, the attacks are a source of frustration.

Just a few weeks ago, Ukraine retook Kherson, forcing Russian troops to retreat to the east bank of the Dnieper River after a months-long counter-offensive.

Since then, Russian forces have fired hundreds of shells across the river at the city.

As in Kiev, the authorities have encouraged residents to leave Kherson, given the lack of electricity and water in the city.

On Wednesday, authorities said they had restored power to 20% of customers, only for more attacks to reverse the situation.

Russian forces fired 34 shells on Thursday, hitting five settlements in the wider region, killing one person and wounding two others, said Yaroslav Yanushevych, head of the regional military administration.

Despite the efforts of Ukrainian engineers and the support of the European Union and the United States, which have started supplying heavy-duty transformers and generators, it will take six months in the restoration of damaged infrastructure, according to Herus.

“During this winter, it is impossible to restore all the damaged structures of the energy infrastructure,” he told Ukrainian TV channel Espresso.

This week, Deputy Interior Minister Yevhen Yenin told Ukrainian television that a total of 520 cities, towns and villages experienced power problems as a result of the attacks.

On Thursday, Brigadier General Oleksii Hromov, a member of the Ukrainian General Staff, warned of the threat of more rocket attacks on infrastructure.

“The enemy’s goal is to cause panic in the population,” he said.

Shortly after he spoke, air raid alarms went off across the country, though they were followed by a restraining order.

In Moscow, Lavrov dismissed as “ridiculous” suggestions that Moscow might try to start ceasefire negotiations with Kiev to buy time and replenish its forces amid battlefield setbacks.

“We never asked for any negotiations,” Lavrov said.

“But we’ve always said that if anyone is interested in finding a negotiated solution, we’re willing to listen.”

President Thursday Joe Biden he said at a White House press conference after a meeting with the French president Emmanuel Macron that he would speak to the president Vladimir Putin if the Russian leader expressed a desire to end his invasion of Ukraine.

However, Biden said he would only do so in consultation with NATO allies.

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