Since October 2022, Russia has launched 255 strikes on 112 energy infrastructure facilities in Ukraine. More than 77% of the attacks, 197 in total, occurred between October and February, as stated by the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, Andrii Kostin, at a press conference.
“These are exactly the strikes that reached their targets. As the saying goes, they ‘hit the mark’. We consider these attacks to be the deliberate creation of uninhabitable conditions, which corresponds to one of the signs of genocide specified in the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide [or the Genocide Convention-ed.],” said Prosecutor General Kostin.
The most attacks on electricity facilities in Ukraine occurred in October 2022, with 82. There were also 32 and 45 attacks in the following two months. Russia struck Ukraine’s power facilities five times in the first month of the war, February 2022. August saw the fewest such attacks, with three. The Russians carried out 15 attacks in the last month.
Unfortunately, almost all oblasts were affected by Russian shelling. Most attacks were recorded in Donetsk, Dnipropetrovs’k, Kyiv, and Kharkiv Oblasts.
On the morning of February 23, 2022, Ukrainian engineers began preparing the country’s energy system to function independently from Russia and Belarus.
A planned disconnection procedure occurred at midnight. Already at 5 am, Putin declared war on Ukraine. Then, the first missiles were launched toward Kyiv. Later, hundreds of them would attack energy facilities, cutting off power and freezing the nation.
However, Russia’s plans did not materialize. Primarily due to the professionalism of Ukrainian power engineers, who kept the energy front operational despite constant Russian bombardment.
Currently, as a result of the improvement of the Ukrainian air defense system and the efforts of repairmen, the energy sector is experiencing daily improvement. However, it is still too early to become content: the second year of the war may prove to be just as challenging.
Read also:
75% of Ukraine’s thermal power plants don’t work due to Russian continuous missile attacks
