Ukraine Claims Russia Damaged a Third of Its Energy Infrastructure in Two Days

Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko claimed in an interview on Tuesday that Russian missiles have damaged at least 30 percent of the energy infrastructure of the entire nation since Vladimir Putin announced a “massive” strike on Monday.

Halushchenko made the remarks in an interview with CNN.

Russia first invaded Ukraine in 2014, colonizing its Crimean peninsula with little response from then-American President Barack Obama or the greater West. The invasion, which continued in the form of hostilities in the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine for eight years, escalated into a full-scale attack on the country in February. Last week, an explosive detonated on the Kerch Strait Bridge, a bridge that Putin’s regime built to connect Crimea to Russia, prompting Putin to announce a new initiative specifically targeting Ukraine’s ability to generate electricity.

Russian news outlets have reported, similar to Halushchenko’s assessment, widespread blackouts throughout Ukraine and an ongoing missile assault bombing energy facilities.

Halushchenko said on Tuesday that he believed that the Ukrainian power grid was “still stable” on a large scale, but he could not guarantee how long that would continue to be true and urged the international community to help Ukraine “protect the sky.”

“Russians they are not playing on some games on international laws. They don’t care about any kind of international agreements or conventions,” the energy minister said, noting that bombing energy infrastructure was unprecedented for the Russians in the course of this war.

The Ukrainian outlet Ukrainska Pravda accused Russia of bombing energy facilities to diminish Kyiv’s profits from selling electricity to other countries – a claim that Russia’s Tass news agency echoed. According to Tass, the Russian government and Russian media had identified “massive electricity outages” across the country, noting that, in addition to hurting civilians in Ukraine, the attacks may limit access to electricity for neighboring countries.

“For Ukraine, electricity exports are primarily a source of budget revenues. Kiev [sic] exports power to four countries, namely Poland, Slovakia, Romania and Moldova, Macroeconomic Analysis Chief at Finam Olga Belenkaya explained,” Tass relayed, citing other Russian media. “According to her, the export amounts are hardly critical for Europe but given the current energy crisis, any relatively cheap electricity supplies are vital. As for Ukraine, additional energy-generating capacity will matter a bit later, when the cold weather sets in and consumption rises.”

Russia’s Defense Ministry announced during its regular briefing on Tuesday that the bombings throughout the day had “achieved their goals.”

“Moscow targeted Ukrainian power plants and other critical facilities after what Russian President Vladimir Putin called a series of ‘terrorist attacks’ orchestrated by Ukrainian special services on Russian soil,” Russian propaganda outlet RT relayed, confirming that Russia’s military objective in its latest escalation was to deprive Ukraine of electricity.

The bombings struck far outside Donbas, where the war has raged for nearly a decade, reaching far-west Lviv, about 40 miles from Poland. Lviv, which has taken in thousands of Ukrainians from other parts of the country in the past year, is also suffering rolling blackouts, according to its mayor in posts on the Russian application Telegram on Monday.

RT also accused the Ukrainians of targeting electrical infrastructure within Russia. Citing “local authorities,” RT claimed on Tuesday that Ukrainian forces had begun targeting facilities in the Russian region of Belgorod in response to the missile strikes, successfully bombing an electrical substation.

“The attack on the facility, located in the village of Shebekino, sparked a fire at a transformer and disrupted power supply for some 2,000 people in the area,” RT claimed.

The bombing of the Kerch Strait Bridge, which awoke in flames on Saturday morning, appears to have been a turning point for Putin. The bridge opened in 2018, giving Russia direct access to Crimea without having to travel through other parts of Ukraine and appearing to cement Putin’s stranglehold over the occupied region. The bridge also served to block large ships from crossing out of the Sea of Azov into the Black Sea, effectively blockading the key Ukrainian port cities of Mariupol and Berdyansk.

Russian officials claimed that a truck bomb was detonated on the bridge on Saturday, killing three passersby. Moscow insisted shortly thereafter, however, that the bridge did not sustain major structural damage and published footage of traffic crossing it hours after the bombing.

On Monday, Putin convened a meeting of Russia’s Security Council to discuss the bombing in which he announced that he would dramatically reconfigure military goals in Ukraine to destroying the country’s energy infrastructure.

“This morning, at the proposal of the Defence Ministry and in accordance with the plan of Russia’s General Staff, a massive strike was launched with long-range precision air, sea and land-based weapons against Ukrainian energy, military and communications facilities,” Putin said, according to the Kremlin. “In the event of more attempts to stage terrorist attacks on our territory, Russia’s response will be harsh and commensurate with the threats posed to the Russian Federation. Nobody should have any doubts about that.”

Putin called the bombing an “act of terrorism” and accused the Ukrainian government of executing it. The administration of President Volodymyr Zelensky has not taken responsibility for the bombing, but has celebrated it openly.

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