The Kremlin has spent years trying to freeze Ukraine into submission. This winter, its attacks have been the most devastating in the history of the war against Ukrainians.
Points of attention
- Russia's relentless attacks on Kyiv are causing severe heating and power outages, aiming to make the capital uninhabitable and force concessions from the Ukrainian government.
- The devastating impact of Russian missile and drone strikes on Kyiv is exacerbating the already dire living conditions, leaving many without heating or electricity during the harsh winter months.
The cruelest winter in Kyiv: Russia cynically “humiliates” Ukrainians by shelling infrastructure
NYT writes about Russia's devastating attacks on the capital of Ukraine, which are leading to terrible consequences in the utility sector in particular.
This week, Russian drone and missile strikes left Kyiv in the midst of the worst heating and power outages of the war. The couple, lawyer Yulia Mykhailiuk, and TV station manager Ihor Honcharuk, could see their breath inside as the temperature outside peaked at around -12 degrees Fahrenheit.
Igor made a heater by placing bricks over a gas burner on the stove, but to no avail. They had had enough.
They put their one-year-old son in the car and left Kyiv for a relative's house in the village.
As Kyiv entered the depths of winter, Russia stepped up a campaign to disable the city’s heating and electricity grids. The attacks are intended to undermine public morale and force the government to make concessions in peace talks brokered by the Trump administration.
This is not the first time Kyiv, a city of three million, has suffered power outages as Russia has tried and failed to freeze Ukraine’s largest city. But this year, Russian missile and drone strikes have had a serious impact. Power has been cut off for several days in a row. City officials say about 500 apartment buildings have no heat at all, the most dramatic outage of the war.
Although most of the fighting is taking place some distance from Kyiv, in the east of the country, the capital still remains a symbolic prize.
Kyiv is out of reach of Russian ground forces, but within range of exploding drones and missiles. Russia’s goal is to make it uninhabitable. Although Kyiv has survived remarkably well during the war years, it becomes most vulnerable when the weather turns cold.
In the first winter after the all-out invasion in February 2022, Moscow attempted to disable the nation’s power grid. This proved too ambitious, as Ukraine managed to do so by rerouting electricity around the damaged equipment. Other strategies included attacks on transformer stations serving nuclear power plants, Ukraine’s main sources of electricity.
This winter, Russia has narrowed its focus to three cities — Kyiv, Odessa, and Dnipro, said Oleksandr Kharchenko, director of the consulting company "Research Center for the Energy Industry."
Russia's goal appears to be to isolate these cities from the national grid and then blow up their power plants. The volleys are repeated about every two weeks. Many energy workers have been injured and killed."
On January 9, Russia struck transformer substations in and around Kyiv. These strikes caused power outages in other parts of the country. Russia also struck all three natural gas and coal-fired power plants in Kyiv, cutting off the city’s domestic heat and electricity sources.
On January 13, the city, which normally consumes about 2,000 megawatts of electricity, was surviving on less than a tenth of that amount, Mr. Kharchenko said. Authorities were diverting the available electricity to water pumps, the metro and other critical infrastructure. Most residential buildings were without power.
As temperatures dropped, many Kyiv residents were also left without heating. The city's power plants produce both electricity and hot water through a district heating system. To compensate, the authorities redirected hot water from a network of gas boilers. They produce much less heat.
"We are fighting for survival. Putin does not need us as a population. He needs property. He needs Ukraine," said Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko.
He said the city's air defense system was running out of ammunition, including American Patriot interceptor missiles. He appealed to Ukraine's Western allies to increase supplies.
Repeated strikes are complicating repair work. Some of the infrastructure hit by Russia during Friday's heavy shelling was hit again on Monday evening.
Volodymyr Dorodko, 23, a lawyer, says many people are tired, and some argue that the war should be stopped even at such a high price as territorial concessions.
He said he opposes handing over Donbas to Russia because, he said, it would only whet the Kremlin's appetite for more.
According to Mr. Dorodko, Ukrainians have no choice but to hold on.
