As analysts note, the occupation army of the Russian Federation has changed the tactics of attacks on energy facilities on the territory of Ukraine.
What is known about the consequences of the attacks of the Russian army on the energy system of Ukraine
The authors of the article note that in recent weeks, the criminal army of the Russian Federation has attacked power generation facilities in Ukraine with an intensity that has not been seen in the past 2 years since the beginning of the war unleashed by the Kremlin.
According to the deputy head of the Ministry of Energy, Svitlana Grinchuk, Russian war criminals have changed the tactics of attacks on Ukrainian energy system facilities, and this is not very good news.
She noted that in the first 2 years from the beginning of the large-scale invasion, the attacks of the criminal army of the Russian Federation on energy facilities in Ukraine were somewhat scattered.
The occupiers fired volleys of rockets at large parts of the Ukrainian energy system.
Now the blows have become more precise and concentrated.
"In such a short period of time — within a few weeks of these massive Russian attacks — almost all of our year-long recovery and repair efforts were destroyed in a few days, in a few attacks," Grinchuk notes.
As Oleksandr Kharchenko, director of the Kyiv Center for Energy Research, noted, the turning point for the occupation army of the Russian Federation regarding Ukrainian energy came at the end of March.
At that moment, the occupiers conducted one of their largest missile and drone attacks on energy facilities in Ukraine.
On March 22, Russia began implementing its new attack strategy. The new strategy consists in massive missile attacks on specific targets, when a large number of missiles and drones are simultaneously focused on a very limited number of targets, Kharchenko explains.
Since then, Russia has destroyed Ukrainian power plants throughout the country, and on April 11, it completely destroyed the Trypil TPP, the largest power plant in the Kyiv region.
DTEK said that Russia had severely damaged two of its power plants and that approximately 80% of the power capacity it operates had been destroyed by Russian strikes.
Instead of continuing to focus their attacks on Ukraine's electricity transmission systems, since late March Russia has launched massive attacks on our electricity generation infrastructure. Unfortunately, the enemy has developed its tactics and uses high-precision weapons. The result is a huge increase in its destructive efficiency compared to 2023, — emphasized the general director of DTEK Maksym Timchenko.
The authors of the material note that there were no instantaneous or long-term power outages throughout Ukraine, as Ukraine stores electricity reserves in storage facilities.
Thermal plants are mostly used to balance the overall demand — especially during intensive heating periods in winter, when consumption rises sharply.
How the attack tactics of the Russian army on the energy system of Ukraine have changed
In addition, as noted in the material, the time of the occupation army's attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure facilities has also changed.
Previously, the bulk of Russia's strikes fell on preparations for winter, now they have come already in the midst of spring.
First, Russia needed time to develop the weapons and intelligence needed to strike. This strategy was clearly developed for a long time, the Russians clearly collected intelligence and prepared very carefully for these attacks, Kharchenko emphasizes.
In addition, Russia probably strategically timed its attack on Ukrainian power plants when they were less protected by air defense systems.
In addition, after coming out of winter, part of Ukrainian air defense may have been redeployed to the front line, which could also lead to such consequences.
Energy Minister Herman Galushchenko emphasized that the northeastern Kharkiv region was the most affected after the beginning of the terror, and more than 200,000 people were left without electricity after the terrorist attacks in Russia on April 11.
The authors of the material noted that Ukraine has shown an extraordinary ability to eliminate damage to its power grid.
In particular, some of the high-voltage substations were restored more than 10 times, and dozens were repaired at least 3-4 times.
But now, according to the authors of the article, Ukraine is faced with a new challenge: the repair of entire power plants, not just substations.
Instead, Ukraine may also consider changing the tactics of its energy system. Instead of restoring large, vulnerable power plants, it can change the way energy is produced.
Instead of 20 large power plants, which concentrate high production capacities and have a significant share in the energy balance, there should be 150-200 small power plants scattered throughout the country, which will be able to provide energy to the city if one of them fails, Tsaturyan emphasizes.
