Kharkiv, Friday March 22, 2024. Ukraine’s second city was plunged into total darkness after dark, while dozens of Russian missiles and explosive drones targeted energy infrastructure earlier in the morning. Its residents are deprived of power: shortly before 8 p.m., only car headlights or telephone lamps illuminate the road. The only illuminated buildings are stores with generators, reports AFP.
“We are used to bombings, they are quite frequent, but there has not been a power outage for a long time,” says Bogdan Kuriashiy, 21, speaking to the press agency. “I would even say that we were not prepared. We had forgotten what external batteries are” for laptops, adds the young student. According to Kharkiv Mayor Igor Terekhov, the attack, which was carried out “with more than 20 missiles”, was the “most powerful” against the city and its energy infrastructure since the start of the war, bringing to a halt heating and water systems, he said midday on Telegram.
Seven regions affected
In recent weeks, Russia has increased the bombing of its neighbor, particularly against energy installations, in retaliation, it says, for Ukrainian attacks against its border regions. Last Friday, the Ukrainian operator Ukrenergo reported power cuts “in seven regions” of the country, in a press release on Telegram, specifying that the “most difficult” situation concerned the regions of Kharkiv (east), Odessa (east). south), Kirovograd (center) and Dnipropetrosvk (center-east). Eight Russian missiles also hit Ukraine’s largest hydroelectric power plant, located on the Dnieper River, in the southern city of Zaporizhia, on Friday, inflicting “very significant damage”.
If electricity was gradually restored in the regions of Kryvy Rih (south) and Khmelnytsky (center), residents were invited to reduce their consumption to avoid further cuts. In Kharkiv, where the main energy installations were destroyed, Mayor Igor Terekhov announced on Telegram on Monday the “premature end” of the heating season from Tuesday, in order to save energy and be able to continue to distribute it to as many people as possible. In Odessa, 300,000 people were still without power at the start of the week.
Ukraine’s Energy Minister called Friday’s strikes “the biggest attack since the start of the Russian invasion” in February 2022, specifying that newly renovated infrastructure had been hit. German Guerashchenko deplored destruction amounting to “billions”: “The real figures will only be known after the final assessment of the damage, but I think they are in the billions, that’s for sure,” he said. declared the minister to the press, without specifying what currency he was talking about. Russian forces “continue these attacks every day,” he added.
Anti-aircraft defense
Ukraine fears reliving a campaign similar to that of the winter of 2022-2023, during which Russia carried out a strategy of massive attacks against the Ukrainian energy system, plunging millions of people into darkness and cold. On Monday, Swedish Energy Minister Emma Busch denounced a Russian strategy that “uses energy infrastructure as targets” during a joint press conference organized in the basement of a government building in Kiev, due to a new missile attack.
For German Gerashchenko, the only way to counter these attacks is to improve “the effectiveness of anti-aircraft defense” – a call to the Western allies. Ukraine, very dependent on military aid provided by its Western partners, has been urging them for several months to send more and faster. The head of Ukrainian diplomacy, Dmytro Kouleba, urged on Monday the delivery of American Patriot anti-aircraft systems “capable of repelling any Russian attack”.
“Ukraine is currently the only country in the world to be attacked almost daily by ballistic missiles. The Patriots must be stationed here and now to save human lives,” he said on X. But significant American aid is still blocked in Congress due to the opposition between Republicans and Democrats. President Joe Biden and his administration want to quickly reach a favorable vote.