Russian Occupiers Attack Ukraine’s Energy Facilities with Missiles for First Time in Half a Year

On Thursday, 21 September, the Russian occupation forces launched the first massive missile attack in six months, which caused damage to energy facilities in the western and central regions of Ukraine. Electricity consumers in the Rivne and Zhytomyr regions were partially cut off.

This was reported by the press service of the Ukrenergo electricity transmission system operator.

“Currently, the operation of trunk networks in the region has been restored, and the resumption of supply to household consumers in regional energy networks continues. Also, during the attack, regional energy networks were damaged in (the) Dnipropetrovsk, Kyiv, and Kharkiv regions. Emergency recovery work began immediately after the all-clear signal was given,” the statement reads.

Energy workers point out that it is too early to make conclusions about the start of a new terrorist campaign against civilian infrastructure.

At the same time, Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, CEO of Ukrenergo, emphasised that this Russian missile attack did not catch the energy workers by surprise as the preparation and restoration of the energy system had not stopped since the end of the previous heating season.

“It is impossible to say whether this is the beginning of a new massive terrorist wave of targeted attacks on the energy system. Energy experts do not have such information and cannot predict the actions of the enemy. But we have no illusions. We read the reports by the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defence and know that the enemy is cynical and cruel; all moral and legal frameworks have been crossed a long time ago. Therefore, we are preparing for any possible scenarios,” the official added.

He also stressed that preparations for the heating season were underway. According to Kudrytskyi, Ukrainian energy engineers have studied the experience of the previous autumn and winter period and have response scenarios. They are cooperating closely with the Armed Forces of Ukraine and local authorities.

One day earlier, Andriy Yusov, a representative of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine, said on the air of a telethon that Russian troops were exploring the state of the Ukrainian energy infrastructure. There is a threat of repeated air attacks by the occupiers on energy facilities.

Bohdan Marusyak