Not only attacking energy infrastructure, but Russia also attacked the railway system, and fuel depots, making Ukraine unable to supply the southern and eastern front lines.
Starting in mid-October, Russia regularly launched massive attacks with cruise missiles every day throughout Ukraine. In the past two weeks, Russian firepower has severely damaged the infrastructure of Ukraine, especially the infrastructure of electric power.
The Russian military’s attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure are carried out methodically, selectively, with a specific route, and with great patience. If this target is not destroyed today, Moscow will instruct the next day to continue launching missiles until it is flattened.
Ukrainian energy experts believe that Russian and former Soviet power system colleagues have “indicated” targets to attack. Most substations and transformers are located on the ground, making them an easy target for Russian missiles.
In addition, the Russian and Ukrainian power grids are technically very similar in design, so Soviet-era infrastructure maps can provide a concrete route to destroy targets.
The Russian strikes caused so much destruction that Ukrainian and Western officials believe they were ordered by former Soviet power system experts who knew well which targets would cause damage. maximum loss to Ukraine’s electricity grid.
This is evident in the fact that since the launch of a raid campaign lasting more than two weeks, Russia has been less focused on important and heavily guarded power plants and more on intersections in the power grid. , which plays an important role as a bridge for the power grid to operate and provide essential services.
According to Ukraine’s Energy Minister German Galushchenko, all UAVs, and air- and sea-based cruise missiles are aimed at energy infrastructure. Moscow has a route to attack these locations, if it misses a target, the next day Russia will continue to attack it.
The Russian military’s attacks with hundreds of missiles and UAVs every day make it almost impossible for Ukraine to do anything about it because Kiev does not have enough air defense systems to protect its energy infrastructure. If forces are withdrawn from military facilities, then the military infrastructure will become the target of attack.
Replacing substations and transformers is particularly difficult, experts say, because they are often built to order and a process that can take several months. Moreover, with old-style transformer stations, it is difficult to find repair parts, which almost always have to be replaced.
However, even if there is enough force to replace materials and components, repairing damaged infrastructure will become meaningless when Russia can attack a target many times, even with a medium base restoration destroyed by the attack that followed.
Just a few days after the Russian missile attack, Kiev officials had to admit that more than a third of the country’s irreplaceable power generation centers had been damaged or destroyed. After two weeks of raids so far, almost the entire power grid infrastructure of Ukraine has been hit to varying degrees.
Ukraine’s damage is irreparable after Russia took control of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia, leaving the eastern and southern regions with severe power shortages, while the country was unable to change power lines. from factories in the North and West to the necessary locations near the battlefields in the South and East.
Ukraine’s electricity system is so severely weakened that authorities have ordered residents to stop using power-hungry appliances and implement a planned power cut within a few hours in Kiev as well as the surrounding cities.
Furthermore, many of the Ukrainian cities that were attacked are home to important factories that need both electricity and gas to keep them running. This means that the above attacks are causing very heavy losses not only to the national power grid but also to the Ukrainian economy.
Russia’s change in tactics worries Ukrainian and Western officials amid the approaching winter. The lives of Ukrainians are severely affected, possibly triggering a new wave of refugees and undermining the war-torn Ukrainian economy.
In addition to the electrical energy infrastructure, Russia also strongly attacked Ukraine’s petroleum fuel storage infrastructure and railway system, in order to prevent Kiev’s ability to supply the front lines. With all of its energy-fuel and supply infrastructure destroyed, Ukraine is in real danger.
Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denis Shmygal recently admitted that Europe will face a “migration tsunami”, if Western countries do not provide more advanced air defense systems to the country to prevent waves. Dangerous Russian missile attack.
