Russia has renewed its attacks on Ukraine’s power plant. This is a follow up to the March 22 attacks which left 1.9 million people without power. This is the most intense in Russia’s campaign. A statement by Ukraine’s energy agency said that a nuclear power plant in the country is “on the verge” of a blackout following a Russian attack. “An external overhead line that supplies power from Ukraine’s energy grid to the Zaporizhzhia plant was disconnected today after a Russian shelling attack,” Energoatom said. The situation “threatens to cause an emergency”, it said in a statement.
“If this last line of communication with the national power grid is disconnected, the plant will be on the verge of another blackout, which is a serious violation of the conditions for its safe operation,” the statement continued.
An AP report said that Russia unleashed 60 exploding drones and 90 missiles across Ukraine which has been the worst assault on the energy sector. The aim is to leave Ukraine without power. Ukraine had already mentioned last week that it has experienced emergency blackouts in three regions after the Russian assault.
Military experts believe that Russia is learning. They have better intelligence by which to exploit gaps in Ukraine’s air defences and thus bring the country to a halt. According to an AFP report, this was acknowledged by Ukraine whose Prime Minister Denys Shmygal said last week that the country “needs more air defence systems to secure critical infrastructure and protect the population.”
President Volodymyr Zelensky has called the attacks “energy terrorism” in November 4, 2022 and the United Nations has described them as “illegal.” Energy attacks have been part of Russia’s war against Ukraine. Around 450,000 households in Kyiv had been left without power in November 2022 and around 4.5 million consumers were disconnected from the power supply.
