“Power Plant WorkerTaras was working in the control room when Russian missiles massively hit the station. He had to stay to complete important tasks when the air alarm siren blared and his colleagues ran to escape.
After loud explosions, a cloud of smoke rose, darkness came. Fires broke out, fragments of rockets broke through the roof of a huge complex, collapsed it on the heads of workers. Following the protocol, Taras closed the coal-fired power plant with a rapid heartbeat.” Associated Press.
The Russian-Ukrainian war is unprecedented in the world, because the target of enemy attacks was the energy system. The Russian army began the first shelling of energy facilities on the eve of the heating season in October 2022.
“Darkest Winter” 2022—2023
“Giving a speech at a meetingVladimir Putin of the Security Council of the Russian Federation reported that the Russian armed forces launched a massive strike with high-precision long-range weapons on the energy, military administration and communications facilities of Ukraine,” reported “Arguments and Facts”.
The Russian president called the massive strike “an appropriate measure for the actions of the Kiev regime”, recalling also “the attacks of saboteurs on the Kursk NPP and the blowing up of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline”.
“For many months, everyone wondered where the main red line was, separating the harsh Russian reaction from the facilitated measures. It seems that this border has been determined at least with respect to Ukraine — it became a terrorist attack on the Crimean bridge,” the AIF writes.
“The United States believesthat the Russian Federation planned massive shelling of Ukraine even before the explosion on the Kerch Bridge, which occurred on October 8.
This was stated by the spokesman of the White House National Security Council, John Kirby, reports CNN. “Most likely, it was something they had been planning for quite some time. This does not mean that the explosion on the Crimean bridge could have accelerated some of their plans,” Kirby said. He noted that attacks of this scale could not have been planned in a few days,” a White House spokesman said.Novinery“.
“In just the last three days128 attacks were reported. As a result, more than two hundred different facilities were damaged, including 28 energy infrastructure facilities,” Shmyhal is quoted as saying Ukrinform.
Ukrainians have learned to live according to the schedules of turning off the lights, use gas burners at home, get used to the noise from generators on the streets.
“It is inspiring to see how people are doing what they have, despite the continuous power outages and power outages after regular Russian missile attacks on the country's power grid,” Sasha Maslov commented on the photo on his Instagram.
During the New Year holidays, the Russian army intensively shelled Ukraine, in particular, due to the New Year's night attack, residents of Zaporizhia and the region met the New Year 2023 without light.
Massive shelling of critical infrastructure facilities affects the operation of nuclear power plants. After the shelling on November 23, 2022, all four Ukrainian nuclear power plants stopped simultaneously for less than a day. And the NPP, which has been occupied by the Russians since the beginning of the war, periodically loses external power supply and goes into emergency mode.
According to the UN and the World BankUkraine lost more than half of its energy capacity in the first 14 months of the war, and the situation continues to deteriorate. Most of the solar energy production in the country was also lost due to the fact that areas in the south of the country with more sunlight fell under Russian occupation,” he said. AP.
On December 13, 2022, Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia Dmitry Medvedev commented on the calls of the President of Ukraine to send EU missions to energy facilities for international control.
“Moscow, December 13 — AIF-Moscow.
Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia Dmitry Medvedev recommended that the European Union not respond to the call of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky to send missions to critical infrastructure facilities.
The Ukrainian leader “wants the Europeans to sit there like a living shield,” because the deaths of the military armed forces are not enough for him and “need fresh blood,” Medvedev suggested.
The Ukrainian authorities faced the need to consolidate the world community around the issue of restoring and protecting the energy system of Ukraine, as well as strengthening air defense.
Continuation of the “fight for light” in 2024.
In the spring of 2024, the Russian army resumed shelling of energy facilities. The HPP 2 station in Dniproges was disabled, the Trypilsk CHP in the Kiev region and the CHP-5 in Kharkiv were destroyed, the Kanivska and Dniester hydroelectric power plants were attacked. The Russians repeatedly targeted the Kiev hydroelectric power plant.
The Russian army began to use the tactic of “double strikes”. After withstanding a certain interval, the blow is dealt to the same target. This tactic, aimed at all those who rescue victims at the scene of the attacks and document war crimes.
New energy strikes and introduced light shutdown schedules have rekindled memories of last winter.
In the spring of 2024, the President of the Russian Federation at a meeting with Alexander Lukashenko told who is to blame for the fact that Russian troops are shelling energy facilities.
“Lately we have observeda series of strikes on our energy facilities. And they were forced to respond. I want to emphasize: even on humanitarian grounds, we did not strike in winter. But they wanted to leave social institutions, hospitals and so on (Russia) without energy supply. However, after a series of strikes on our energy facilities, we were forced to respond,” the head of state said at a meeting with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko, — Putin is quoted as saying by the AIF. — Strikes on energy facilities are also related to solving one of the tasks that the country set itself for a special operation (SVO), is the demilitarization of Ukraine, Putin continued.
“Why Energy
Energy facilities are critical infrastructure facilities that allow the production of weapons, so they are a legitimate target of Russian troops, explained the aif member of the Presidium of the All-Russian NGO “Officers of Russia” Colonel Levon Arzanov.
“All the world practice of modern warfare dictates strikes on critical infrastructure, including power, railways and highways. Because where there is no electricity, there is no management. Where there is no control, chaos ensues. However, our strikes are spot and selective. The United States in Yugoslavia primarily hit critical infrastructure. But we, unlike our Western opponents, do not carry out carpet strikes, but destroy point-by-point, we show humanism towards the civilian population — we destroy only those energy facilities that feed the armed forces and the WPK. We do not set ourselves the task of plunging the whole of Ukraine into the darkness, into the Stone Age. As the Supreme Commander said, we are not fighting with the population, but with the leadership of the Nazi Kiev regime,” the colonel summed up.
“It was an honor to work for the New Yorker on the massive scale of the Russian attack on Ukraine's energy sector and civilian infrastructure,” Sasha Maslov captioned the photo on Instagram.
Russian propagandists call the Kursk operation of the Armed Forces one of the reasons for the resumption of shelling on Ukraine's energy sector. They call not to trust the words of the Ukrainian authorities about the destroyed energy system.
Propagandists call it a “targeted campaign by the Kiev regime to disinformation both the Russian military-political leadership and Western partners” in order to intimidate its own people and confuse partners.
“Nothing to look for, we have everything lost. Intelligence should check this, and the Russian CCP should do the control in the head. These bandits do not hesitate and purposefully hit the Kursk NPP, trying to hit the nuclear waste storage facilities. One can no longer tolerate and engage in humanism. It is ideal to arrange a complete blackout for Ukraine. And now they are again canceling the schedules of power outages.”
Associated PressIn the spring of 2024, after massive shelling of critical infrastructure, Ukraine gained access to two DTEK power plants. Journalists were able to talk to workers and station management and assess the scale of the destruction.
“The March 22 attack, which analysts say left 1.9 million people without light, was one of the most intense missile attacks in Russia's spring air campaign against civilian infrastructure.”
“The Kharkiv region, bordering Russia and the hardest hit, is still suffering a power outage weeks later. On Thursday, drones struck the Zmievskaya power plant in the region, plunging 350,000 people into darkness.
“They are trying to return us to the 17th century,” said Serhiy, the head of one of the power plants that was attacked.
The agency writes that Russia began to invent a new tactic for shelling energy facilities, admitting that the old de-energization strategy had failed.
Using the best intelligence, the Russian military sent “not three drones and two missiles” to the target, but “six missiles and up to 15 drones.” DTEK lost 80% of its generating capacity as a result of massive attacks by the Russians on March 22 and 29.
“If the sky were protected“I would feel calmer,” he said. “Energy infrastructure is what everything depends on. If there is no electricity, nothing works: the plants do not work. People without internet. You don't even know when missiles are going to fly at you,” he said in an interview APworker of the power plant Taras.
“These photos can only show a tiny part of the tragedy and heroism of the energy workers, who suddenly became the target of Russian missiles, they have to come to work every day with the fear that this day could be the last,” Sasha Maslov wrote in an Instagram photo for the New Yorker.
On the eve of the new heating season of 2024-2025, the Russian army attacks Ukrainian territory every night with attack UAVs and ballistic missiles, striking, including energy facilities. KABs are constantly flying to Kharkiv region, Sumy region, Donetsk region and Zaporizhzhia. The Russian military destroys Kherson with all types of weapons.
Record a war crime to bring to justice.
How to determine whether this or that energy infrastructure object is a legitimate military target? And did the destruction of the energy facility provide an indisputable military advantage? After all, energy facilities are often used for military and civilian needs at the same time.
Lack of electricity leads to problems with water supply, drainage, disposal of household waste.
The functioning of hospitals, factories and other critical infrastructure facilities depends on these factors.
It is more difficult to prosecute for this type of war crime than for others — and this is a legal challenge for international courts.
Information website on international justice “Justice Info” clarifiesthat such cases are complicated due to the lack of a successful legal precedent. It is difficult to determine whether the harm done to the civilian population is clearly excessive compared to the military advantage.
Legal advisor of Global Rights Compliance, cooperating with the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine, Lidia Volkova in an interview “Justice Info”noted an important, in her opinion, element that judges can pay attention to. This is the fact of the task of striking energy facilities far from the front line, which was most likely aimed at “harming civilian infrastructure, energy distribution and weakening public morale.”
“The ISS judges really came to a conclusionthat “for those facilities that could qualify as military facilities at the appropriate time, the expected incidental damage and damage inflicted on the civilian population would be clearly excessive compared to the expected military advantage,” making these strikes war crimes,” the publication writes.
For missile strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure committed by the Russian army between October 2022 and March 2023MXissued arrest warrants for high-ranking Russian commanders Sergei Kobylash and Viktor Sokolov, Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov and former Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation Sergey Shoigu.
To hold the Russian army accountable for war crimes MXopened an office in Kyiv in September. Evidence of these crimes are often the images of Ukrainian photojournalists, who, despite the obvious risks to their lives, decide to document them.
The material was worked on:
Researcher of the topic, author of the text: Yana Yevmenova
Bildeditor: Vyacheslav Ratynskyi
Literary Editor: Julia Futei
Site Manager: Vladislav Kuhar
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