Ukrainians expect more Russian attacks on energy grid

12/02/2022 / By Kevin Hughes

Ukraine is expecting more attacks from Russia targeting its energy grid.

During a November 28 event hosted by an important Washington-based think tank, Ukrainian officials depicted Russian strikes on the nation’s energy infrastructure and listed the funds they said are still required despite billions of donations from the United States and many other nations.

“He [Vladimir Putin] is sure that this winter is a focal point for him to show that he can make sure that Ukrainians will not survive,” Oksana Nechyporenko, director of the Ukraine Crisis Coordination Center and former chief of staff to Ukraine Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk, said during the Atlantic Council event.

Russian aerial attacks on the Ukrainian grid have severely damaged the country’s energy infrastructure, leading the government to enforce emergency blackouts throughout the country. (Related: Ukraine grapples with power interruptions as winter approaches.)

“EU [European Union] nations expect the latest attacks to prompt a new wave of refugees and current refugees have been urged to remain abroad over the winter,” said energy experts at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Russia’s latest missile and drone strikes on the grid have already prompted the U.S. to give more financial aid to Ukraine.

U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) administrator Samantha Power declared in October that America would spend $55 million on energy infrastructure in Ukraine, including financing for generators and funds to restore and sustain current systems.

“As Putin continues to target Ukraine’s electricity system, the U.S. is working to help keep the lights on,” Power said on her Twitter account on Nov. 25, featuring the latest U.S. efforts to provide generators.

The White House’s Nov. 15 request to Congress called for $37.7 billion in additional aid to Ukraine that includes $1.1 billion “to secure and repair Ukraine’s energy sector and to address Ukraine’s energy supply.”

According to former Ukraine deputy minister of foreign affairs Lana Zerkal, Ukraine requires new high-voltage equipment to replace infrastructure ruined by Russian attacks.

Melinda Haring of the Atlantic Council asked Zerkal to make a list of equipment that Ukraine needs, stating she would be “very happy to circulate that list in Washington.”

“It’s like the start of the war all over again,” Nechyporenko said, mentioning that Ukrainian families must organize among themselves to obtain community generators.

Russia’s systematic attacks caused massive and vicious destruction to Ukraine’s energy infrastructure

Russia’s systematic attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, which began on October 10, have caused “massive, vicious destruction” of power plants and portions of the country’s grid as stated by Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, CEO of Ukraine’s national grid operator, Ukrenergo.

“We are, unfortunately, expecting another attack, and we understand that this attack will happen until they probably exhaust all their heavy missile fleet,” Kudrytskyi said. He added that mobile generators from foreign countries could assist people lacking water, electricity and heating while bigger mobile power plants could also contribute to solving Ukraine’s urgent energy demands.

According to Kudrytskyi, it would take “several hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars” to replace damaged equipment at substations and power plants. However, he refused to comment about the price of extra air defense systems needed to protect those infrastructures.

Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Infrastructure Oleksandra Azarkhina said Ukrainians require water filtration equipment, especially in the south and east of the country.

Azarkhina later suggested that audience members donate to UNITED24, a venue for aid made by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. UNITED24 replaced “Aid for Ukraine,” a website with connections to the collapsed FTX crypto exchange of Sam Bankman-Fried.

UNITED24 is “directly connected to all state funds,” Azarkhina said.

Not long before the ongoing war started, the U.S. Department of Energy was working with Ukraine to lower the country’s energy reliance on Russia. According to a 2018 report from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Russia historically provided much of Ukraine’s natural gas and nuclear fuel.

In September, Ukraine reached a deal to acquire two billion cubic meters of natural gas from America for the fourth quarter of 2022 and the first quarter of 2023.

Follow EnergySupply.news for more news about Ukraine’s energy infrastructure problem.

Watch the video below to know more about Russia’s airstrikes on Ukrainian infrastructure.

This video is from The Prisoner channel on Brighteon.com.