Ukraine is preparing for a possible return of massive missile attacks by Russia on the country’s energy system. In this context, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba noted that it is important for Ukraine to receive additional air defense equipment from its allies on the eve of winter.
Pro-Russian media claim that Ukraine has “reached a new level of blackmailing the West.” Citing the words of Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, Russian media stated that Ukrainian diplomacy is “manipulating” the topic of Russian shelling of Ukraine’s critical infrastructure in an attempt to “wrest new tens of billions of dollars and euros” from donor countries. At the same time, the pro-Kremlin media assured that Russia allegedly carried out “light strikes” on heat and power infrastructure in the fall and winter of 2022-2023 in order “not to harm” civilians and “not to violate” international law.
“The fact is that deliberately leaving the civilian population of a state without electricity is a violation of international humanitarian law; in fact, this is the reason why previous Russian strikes were so light and did not lead to long-term blackouts,” pro-Kremlin media assert.
“All of this [Ukraine’s preparations for Russian winter shelling – ed.] are simple methods of manipulation designed to maintain, or better yet, increase the volume of military aid to Kyiv from partner countries,” Russian media write.
The Russian disinformation campaign on the topic of “Ukrainian blackmail of the West for weapons” is built around a statement by the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba. In an interview with Die Welt, he said that Russia may again resort to massive shelling of the country’s critical infrastructure when the weather gets cold.
In this context, Kuleba noted that it is more important for Ukraine to receive additional air defense equipment from Germany rather than German-Swedish Taurus cruise missiles on the eve of winter. The diplomat said that Ukraine is preparing for “the worst winter in its history” by protecting its energy system from Russian attacks.
“I bought dozens of candles. My father bought a whole truckload of firewood. We are preparing for the worst winter in history. So we will turn a blind eye if we don’t get Taurus, but we will get air defense systems. We are trying to protect our power plants as best we can. But the Russians are learning. They will once again test our endurance with their missiles,” Kuleba emphasized.
The Russian attacks on Ukraine’s critical infrastructure are not fiction and not Ukrainian blackmail, as pro-Kremlin media claim. Russia launched massive missile attacks on Ukrainian energy system facilities on October 10, 2022, under the pretext of “responding to the Ukrainian strike” on the bridge across the Kerch Strait illegally built by the occupiers. According to Ukrainian intelligence and Western intelligence services, Russia planned to launch a series of attacks on the Ukrainian energy sector long before the special operation of the Ukrainian defense forces on the Russian bridge. Read more in StopFake’s article Fake: Russian “Military Targets” Strikes in Ukraine – a Response to “Kerch Bridge Attack”.
Russian occupants have been conducting dozens of targeted strikes on the Ukrainian energy system. According to the UN, 42 out of 94 (45%) key high-voltage transformers in Ukraine have been damaged or destroyed by Russian missile attacks. More than half of these transformers have been repeatedly shelled by the occupiers, which has hampered attempts to repair them, UN experts say. Electricity generation capacity has also been reduced by almost half. Of the nearly 37 GW of available capacity, more than 19 GW has been destroyed, damaged or seized by Russia.
As a result of Russian attacks, the Ukrainian energy system has suffered losses totaling more than $10 billion. And this does not include the damage caused to Ukraine by the bombing of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant in June 2023, the UN summarizes.
In addition, due to barbaric Russian attacks, Ukrainian NPPs are periodically left without power, which is a violation of all generally accepted nuclear safety principles. For example, Zaporizhzhya NPP experienced a complete blackout at least five times due to Russian shelling. As a result of the Russian attacks, on November 15, 2022, the power supply to Khmelnytsky NPP was urgently interrupted. And a week later Ukraine went into a complete blackout for the first time in its history – on November 23, as a result of the Russian attack, all four Ukrainian nuclear power plants were completely and simultaneously de-energized. This unprecedented case is the first not only in Ukrainian history, but also in the history of global nuclear power in general.
Russia is attacking not only Ukraine’s electrical and nuclear infrastructure. As a result of the occupiers’ massive shelling in the fall and winter of 2022-2023, not a single intact thermal and hydroelectric power plant remained in Ukraine.
Under international law, Russian missile attacks on Ukrainian critical infrastructure can be regarded as war crimes that have no statute of limitations and are subject to the jurisdiction of courts around the world.
