#damage to ukraine's power grid

[tomorrowusa]

Russia is trying to take advantage of the recent Trump-instigated four month gap in US aid to Ukraine by attacking Ukraine's power grid. Since the belated aid package was passed this month, ammunition and weapons have been moving to Ukraine.

To help make up for recent Russian damage to Ukraine's electricity distribution system, Latvia (population 1,821,750) has donated a high voltage transformer and related equipment to Ukraine.

The Latvian joint-stock energy supply company Latvenergo donated a high-voltage transformer, 60 tons of transformer oil, and an air compressor for the restoration of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, according to Delfi. This spring, Russia intensified its air assaults on the Ukrainian energy grid, causing damage to power plants and power distribution facilities across Ukraine. The donated equipment, which includes a TS-250000/330 transformer with a capacity of 250 MVA previously used at the Riga Hydroelectric Power Plant, a GR110 oil-injected screw air compressor, and 60 tons of transformer oil, is expected to contribute to the critical support that Ukraine’s energy system needs in the wake of the Russian bombing campaign.  Latvenergo’s Administrative Director, Arnis Kurgs, emphasized the impact of this donation, stating that the delivered equipment will assist Ukrainian residents at the household level and ensure the water supply and heating of essential facilities such as hospitals and schools.

Kudos to Latvia and Latvenergo for pushing back against Putin! 🇱🇻

Latvia was a "republic" of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) for 51 years after Stalin invaded the country in 1940. Latvians have no illusions about Russia or its intentions. It is now a NATO member and does more than its share in protecting liberal democracy in Europe.

As for the power grid in Ukraine, this war makes a good case for increased use of decentralized solar power. Being highly innovative, Ukrainians are likely to make significant contributions, based on their wartime experience, in the field of solar energy.

[katerenko]

Merry Christmas?..

Today, on 25 December, the Russian occupiers launched another missile attack on Ukraine - the enemy again targeted critical infrastructure facilities: TPPs, CHPs, and power grids.

According to the command of the Ukrainian Air Force, 184 enemy air targets were recorded:

2 KN-23 ballistic missiles;

10 S-300/S-400 anti-aircraft guided missiles;

12 cruise Kalibr Missiles ;

50 X-101/X-55 cruise missiles from Tu-95MS strategic bombers;

4 X-59/X-69 guided missiles from tactical aircraft;

106 Shahed strike UAVs

The Ukrainian Air Defence Forces shot down 113 targets.

Kharkiv

The Russians launched 12 missiles at the city and targeted critical infrastructure: boiler houses, CHP plant, and electricity facilities.

So far, six people have been reported injured: five men and one woman.

Ivano-Frankivsk

The enemy strike left part of the Carpathian region without power supply - residents of Kalush, Burshtyn and Ivano-Frankivsk were without electricity.

Dnipro

The Ukrainian Air Defense Forces shot down 42 enemy missiles over the Dnipro region.

The missile attack damaged infrastructure in Dnipro. Unfortunately, a TPP worker, 51-year-old Dmitry Petlenko, was killed. His body was found under the rubble.

The windows of a nine-story building were also smashed, and a private house was damaged. An outbuilding caught fire, and rescuers extinguished the fire.

Kirovohrad region

Critical infrastructure in the Kirovohrad region was also targeted by the Russians.

The falling debris caused a fire in a warehouse.

As a result of the strike, the pumping stations of the Dnipro-Kirovohrad water pipeline were de-energized.

Vinnytsia region

At night, the enemy attacked the energy infrastructure. There is damage. As of the morning, thanks to the coordinated work of power engineers, all consumers are supplied with electricity.

Kyiv region

The air alert in the Kyiv region lasted all night. Air defense forces were working in the region. Some enemy targets were shot down. Fortunately, no people were hurt.

As a result of the falling debris of downed enemy targets in two districts of the region, 12 trucks, a cafe and three private houses were damaged.

Kryvyi Rih

An enemy missile strike killed one person and injured 17 others, including two children, the State Emergency Service of Ukraine reports.

"This is definitely not a global war"

Meanwhile, Poland again sent its military aircraft into the sky. As noted by the Operational Command of the Polish Armed Forces, this step was taken “because of the Russian air attack, which can hit objects located in the West of Ukraine, among other things.”

In addition, one of the Russian missiles entered Ukraine through the airspace of Moldova.

At 07:24, the Ukrainian Air Force reported a cruise missile flying toward Chernivtsi from Moldova. At the same time, monitoring Telegram channels claim that the Russian missile flew about 140 kilometers through the territories of Moldova and Romania.

Не забуваймо, завдяки кому ми зустрічаємо цьогоріч Різдво.

Слава Україні!

Героям слава!

Слава нації!

Смерть ворогам!

[mariacallous]

Ukraine is set to face its toughest winter since the start of the full-scale invasion as Russia eyes cutting off its nuclear power after already bombing out capacity from half of its electricity generation sector in large-scale air strikes.

For now, Russia is not directly striking the plants with missiles and kamikaze drones. But Moscow has increasingly targeted nearby infrastructure, such as substations containing crucial equipment like transformers and power lines connecting nuclear plants to the grid.

“We're in a world where (Ukraine) has a deficit of functioning infrastructure. This is going to be the hardest winter yet,” International Energy Agency (IEA) Chief Economist Tim Gould told the Kyiv Independent.

If Russian attacks successfully disconnect all the power plants from the grid, then Ukraine’s only stable power source is gone, said Warsaw-based energy analyst Wojciech Jakobik.

“(Nuclear power) is a baseload capacity, which is irreplaceable by renewables, other sources, and especially not by energy imports,” he told the Kyiv Independent.

“With a smaller nuclear capacity in place, Ukraine will have less flexibility and less ability to stabilize (energy) generation.”

Ukraine has lost 9 gigawatts of power generation, including eight thermal plants and five hydro plants, due to Russian strikes this year. While companies scramble to repair their damaged assets, Russia is gearing up to attack Ukraine’s nuclear infrastructure, the Energy Ministry's press office told the Kyiv Independent, which would freeze out Ukrainians and cause a humanitarian crisis if the country can’t swiftly repair and protect its infrastructure.

After the occupation of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in 2022, Ukraine relies heavily on three nuclear plants remaining under government control. They are the lifeline of the country, providing 60% of its power. The last mass attack on Aug. 26 forced Ukraine to disconnect three units at the Rivne and South Ukraine plants, causing weeks of power outages.

The country’s state-owned nuclear company, Energoatom, told the Kyiv Independent that all its power units are ready to operate at “maximum capacity” during the heating season, and the company connected a refurbished one-gigawatt nuclear power unit to the grid on Oct. 1. However, it has only recently announced plans to build additional fortifications to protect power plants from attacks.

Without stable power, Ukrainians will face another round of blackouts similar to the ones in the summer which could last as long as eight hours a day, according to Kyiv-based think tank DiXi Group. Brutally cold winter temperatures during power outages will freeze pipes, cutting off Ukrainians’ access to water and heating, and may lead to another wave of refugees, the UN’s refugee agency (UNHCR) told the Kyiv Independent.

At the same time, attacks on nuclear infrastructure massively heighten the risks of accidents, the Energy Ministry's press office said. While Jakobik believes a Chernobyl-like scenario is unlikely as reactors are well protected, damage to substations could prevent backup supplies of electricity that ensure the safety of reactors, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).

The EU and the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv both told the Kyiv Independent that they are pitching in to bolster the energy sector in time for winter with financial support, backup equipment, and humanitarian aid. But with Russia relentlessly churning out and firing its missiles and drones, the only tangible tool for energy security is stronger air defense, the Energy Ministry's press office said.

Running out of time and options

During the first years of the full-scale invasion, Ukraine relied on different facilities within its massive energy sector to survive the initial attacks on energy infrastructure and even managed to export electricity to the EU. But that changed this year after mass attacks beginning in March wiped out 50% of its energy assets. Now, Ukraine has run out of options and switched from exporting to importing 2 gigawatts of electricity from its European neighbors. Winter power outages appear inevitable. The United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission (UNHRMM) expects blackouts to last between 4-18 hours a day, depending on attacks and the weather, causing living conditions to crumble for millions of citizens. “The deficit of electricity supply could be up to 6 gigawatts. That's the equivalent of peak demand in Denmark,” Gould said. With nuclear power as the remaining foundation for Ukraine’s energy stability, it is the prime target for Russian strikes, the Energy Ministry's press office said. Ukraine’s government seeks to decentralize the power grid as quickly as possible, but this is unlikely to happen by the winter and private energy companies are desperately restoring their assets to strengthen the grid.

Ukraine hopes to recover 3 gigawatts by the end of the year, said Olena Lapenko, general manager in the Field of Security and Resilience at DiXi Group. But this depends on critical funding, which state electricity grid operator Ukrenergo puts at $1.5 billion for rapid repairs this season. So far, Ukraine has received nearly 700 million euros ($766 million) from its energy support fund in cooperation with the European Commission, and winter is fast approaching.

Part of the fund covers much-needed equipment, such as autotransformers, to patch up facilities damaged by Russian air strikes as fast as possible. Simple repairs around nuclear plants, like power lines, can be fixed within 24 hours, said Jakobik. But specialized equipment depends on deliveries from Western allies, which can take months unless there are readily available stockpiles, he said. “The tough part is, you replace the old infrastructure with new parts and Russia attacks it once again,” he added. DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy company owned by its richest man Rinat Akhmetov, has lost 90% of its thermal plants capacity to Russian attacks. By winter, the company hopes to restore 60-65% of its thermal power that was damaged in spring. But even this would not be enough to replace nuclear power if all the plants are disconnected, said Oleksiy Povolotskiy, DTEK’s head of Recovery Office. Another issue, said Povolotskiy, is that the war has bitten a chunk out of Ukraine’s manual workforce while the scale of the damage is massive. DTEK is bringing in workers from other enterprises, like miners, to help clear debris. The company has asked European states to send engineers and machinery for more complex repairs.

The costs of Russian attacks are piling up for Ukraine. DTEK has already funneled $80 million into repairs from its own budget. Instead of relying on equipment that softens the fallout of attacks and power outages, Povolotskiy believes the most efficient solution is for Western allies to provide Ukraine with additional air-defense systems.

“Partners should understand that it is much cheaper and much more efficient to protect (energy facilities) than to repair,” he said.

The U.S. embassy in Ukraine told Kyiv Independent that the Defense Department will provide an additional Patriot battery and missiles but did not specify if this was directly for the protection of energy facilities. For now, this is the only confirmed delivery of an additional air defense battery, although Washington pledged a $2.6 billion aid package on Sept. 26 that includes munitions and support for air defense systems.

Ill prepared and ultra exposed

With no other extra air-defense systems currently in the pipeline, Ukraine’s government is building protective constructions for substations against falling debris and drones. However, not enough constructions have been built in time for winter and contractors have allegedly not been fully paid.

“More concrete constructions must be built as soon as possible,” Povolotskiy said.

Yuliia Kyian, an official at the Energy Ministry, told the Kyiv Independent during a discussion in Kyiv on Oct. 2, that the constructions are expensive and take time to build. They also cannot withstand ballistic missile strikes, she added.

Energoatom has faced criticism. In September and October, the company signed contracts to construct a $12.3 million shield around the Rivne Nuclear Power Plant and a $14.4 million worth of protection around the South Ukraine plant in Mykolaiv Oblast. Ukrainian anti-corruption watchdog Nashi Groshi reported that the contracts were concluded only after President Volodymyr Zelensky told the UN Security Council that Russia was preparing an attack on the three operating nuclear plants.

“It is difficult to assess why this was not done earlier,” said DiXi Group’s Lapenko.   “Probably no one could imagine that the Russians would aim directly at the nuclear power sites as this is a serious threat to nuclear safety. But we can’t exclude such a scenario.”

A nuclear disaster would threaten the whole of Europe, the Energy Ministry's press office said, adding that the global community must unite to prevent a catastrophe. Kyiv has reached out to the UN’s nuclear agency (IAEA) to place more observation missions around its power plants, but an agreement has not yet been reached.

International observers will ensure that safety standards are enforced at the plants and combat disinformation, as Moscow frequently denies Ukraine’s accusations of endangering nuclear safety, Jakobik said. Nevertheless, Russia could pummel nuclear facilities to the point that it is dangerous for people to remain and force evacuations.

“Russia is not a responsible stakeholder in the nuclear sector,” he said.

“It's using energy terrorism against Ukraine. You cannot be sure about what Russia is doing,” the energy analyst added.

[partisan-by-default]

An undersea power cable that runs between Finland and Estonia was disconnected on Christmas Day. Finland is pretty sure that Russia is to blame. On Thursday, Finnish authorities boarded an oil tanker that is part of Russia’s “shadow fleet” used to dodge sanctions and that just so happened to be spotted passing over the EstLink 2 underwater cable as it stopped working, according to the Financial Times.

Per The Guardian, the incident happened at 12:26 pm local time on Wednesday, and Arto Pahkin, Finland’s head of operations for the electricity grid, immediately said sabotage could not be ruled out. Finnish authorities have also confirmed that damage was caused to at least three other cables, potentially part of the same incident.

This led to the seizure of Eagle S, an oil tanker registered to the Cook Islands but believed to belong to Russia. The ship’s tracking data suggests it was carrying oil from Russia to Egypt, but apparently made room to cause some chaos along the route. Authorities believe the ship’s anchor, which could not be found on the ship, was used to cut the cables.

The Eagle S is believed by authorities to be part of Russia’s shadow fleet, which the country has been using since the start of its war with Ukraine to evade Western sanctions. The fleet consists of old, rickety vessels that Russia obscures its ownership of using a variety of techniques including labyrinthian management structures, frequent cargo transfers between vessels, falsified information, identification system blackouts, and other schemes. It’s believed the country operates about 600 ships as part of its off-the-books oil business. Because many of these ships carry oil and are poorly maintained, they often violate modern safety standards and ignore regulations, resulting in additional harm including oil spills.

[darkmaga-returns]

Authored by Melanie Sun via The Epoch Times,

President Joe Biden on Christmas Day said he has directed the Pentagon to continue its “surge of weapons deliveries to Ukraine,” following a wave of Russian air attacks on Ukrainian cities and energy infrastructure early Christmas morning.

“The purpose of this outrageous attack was to cut off the Ukrainian people’s access to heat and electricity during winter and to jeopardize the safety of its grid,” Biden said in a statement. “Let me be clear: the Ukrainian people deserve to live in peace and safety, and the United States and the international community must continue to stand with Ukraine until it triumphs over Russia’s aggression.”

The president said that the United States will “continue to work tirelessly” to back Ukraine against Russian forces in the ongoing war.

Ukraine’s air force said that the early morning attack by Russia using 78 air and ground missiles and 106 Shahed drones damaged critical equipment in Ukraine’s power grid, causing outages on Christmas Day.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy decried the deliberate attack on Christmas day as “inhumane.”

Ukraine shot down “more than 50 missiles and a significant number of drones” and was still hit as there are power outages in a number of regions as engineers are trying to restore power, Zelenskyy said.

“Russian evil will not break Ukraine and will not spoil Christmas,” Zelenskyy said.

The strikes wounded at least six people in the northeastern city of Kharkiv and killed one in the region of Dnipropetrovsk, the governors there said.

Christmas in Ukraine, where most of its people are Christian Orthodox, used to be celebrated on Jan. 7, as is the case in Russia, but that changed in 2023 to Dec. 25, the date used in Western countries.

Nearly three years into the war, Washington has committed $175 billion in aid for Ukraine.

President-elect Donald Trump, who will take office on Jan. 20, has said he wants to bring the war to a swift end.

Trump’s choice for special envoy to Ukraine and Russia, retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, has condemned the Christmas Day attack.

“Christmas should be a time of peace, yet Ukraine was brutally attacked on Christmas Day,” Kellogg wrote on the social platform X.

“Launching large-scale missile and drone attacks on the day of the Lord’s birth is wrong. The world is closely watching actions on both sides. The U.S. is more resolved than ever to bring peace to the region.”

[affairsmastery]

On Christmas Day, Russia launched a massive missile and drone attack on Ukraine, deliberately targeting the nation’s power grid. President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned Vladimir Putin, calling the strike “inhumane” and accusing him of exploiting the holiday for devastation.

Over 170 missiles and drones were fired, leaving one dead and triggering widespread blackouts. Ukraine's air force intercepted more than 50 missiles, but several reached their targets, damaging thermal power plants and plunging multiple regions into darkness.

"Putin deliberately chose Christmas to attack. What could be more inhumane?" Zelensky said, vowing resilience despite the hardships.

[adrl-pt]

Putin's War Out of Boredom. Milei Revives Argentina’s Economy. Prisoner Exchange.

You are watching the news from the weekly rally at the Russian Embassy in Lisbon. Today is January 4, 2:30 PM.

On December 19, Putin stated during a live session that when everything is calm, it becomes boring, and you want action. He added that now, bullets are whistling past his temple but claimed the economy is fine overall. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/9bk_NBKJDrc

On December 1, Deutsche Welle reported on changes to Russia’s budget law signed by Putin. Military spending will increase by 25%, alongside a rise in funding for security agencies. https://www.dw.com/ru/putin-utverdil-trehletnij-gosbudzet-s-rekordnymi-voennymi-rashodami/a-70930991

On December 23, journalist Dmitry Nizovtsev explained on the Navalny LIVE channel that the cost of a traditional New Year’s table for 2024 has risen by 23%. Since the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine three years ago, prices have surged by 62%. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3uuBJ9LEqQ

Radio Svoboda listed additional items that will see price hikes starting January 1 due to increased taxes, excise duties, and tariffs. https://www.svoboda.org/a/v-rossii-rastut-tseny-na-tovary-i-uslugi-i-povyshayutsya-nalogi/33260095.html

On October 28, The Moscow Times quoted Putin acknowledging "difficulties" in the Russian economy and inflation accelerating fourfold. He attributed the issues to external sanctions, labor shortages, and a lack of technology. https://www.moscowtimes.ru/2024/10/28/putin-zayavil-o-problemah-v-ekonomike-i-obvinil-v-inflyatsii-zapadnie-sanktsii-a146184

Putin has sacrificed hundreds of thousands of lives, taxes, and lucrative energy contracts inherited from his predecessors to entertain himself with war. He labels those who criticize him as traitors. On December 28, he signed a strategy to combat extremism in Russia. According to Deutsche Welle, this includes monitoring citizens who have left Russia and those who tell the truth about the war in Ukraine, using artificial intelligence. https://www.dw.com/ru/rusofobia-i-ucet-uehavsih-putin-utverdil-antiekstremistskuu-strategiu-rf/a-71177977

Javier Milei, elected as President of Argentina in November 2023, shared insights a year later in an interview on Lex Fridman’s channel. By drastically reducing the role of the state, his administration saved the country from hyperinflation, reduced poverty, and began repaying debts left by the previous government. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NLzc9kobDk https://www.utdt.edu/profesores/mrozada/pobreza

Some good news. On December 30, under mediation by the United Arab Emirates, Russia and Ukraine conducted a prisoner exchange. 189 people returned to Ukraine, and 150 returned to Russia. https://theins.ru/news/277630

Every third Russian was located with the help of the "Hochu Naiti" project. https://hochunaiti.com

On the same day, the United States allocated a military aid package to Ukraine worth nearly $2.5 billion. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/12/30/statement-from-president-joe-biden-on-u-s-support-for-ukraines-defense/

According to the Czech news agency CTK, Slovakia’s state-owned electricity grid operator will continue supplying electricity to Ukraine. Previously, Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico threatened to cut supplies in response to Ukraine halting Russian gas transit. https://www.irozhlas.cz/ekonomika/ukrajina-o-proud-ze-slovenska-neprijde-tamni-provozovatel-prenosove-soustavy_2501031312_pj

The Times reports that Russian shelling has already damaged or destroyed 80% of Ukraine's energy infrastructure. https://www.thetimes.com/world/russia-ukraine-war/article/energy-corruption-leaves-ukrainians-facing-a-deadly-freeze-9b9tb7gwx

Support the fundraiser for €100,000 to purchase portable power stations for Ukrainian hospitals and schools. https://antiwarcommittee.info/en/energy-for-life/

We wish you a happy upcoming Orthodox Christmas!

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[andrewtheprophet]

Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant on verge of blackout due to Russian attacks – Ukraine's largest electricity producer: Jeremiah 12

The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) is again on the verge of a blackout: Russian attacks damaged the external overhead line through which the plant received power from the Ukrainian power grid for its own needs. Source: press service of the National Nuclear Energy Generating Company Energoatom Details: “The Russian bombardment on 22 August damaged the external overhead line of 330kV…

[ukrainenews]

Daily Wrap Up April 27-May 1, 2023

(Unplanned long weekend break due to inconvenient minor injury. Oops.)

Under the cut:

A Russian mass missile attack against Ukraine killed 25 people, including five children, on April 28, according to the Ukrainian authorities. The Russian overnight attack that hit a nine-story residential building in the city of Uman, Cherkasy Oblast, killed 23 people, including four children, as of 7 p.m., the Interior Ministry reported. (These numbers may continue to change.)

A fire at a fuel storage facility in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol, caused by an apparent drone strike, has been extinguished, the Moscow-installed governor has said. Video footage posted on social media earlier on Saturday showed a large waterside area on fire, with a column of black smoke rising from the burning fuel. Other images showed a huge pall of smoke hanging over the area. More than a dozen fuel tanks are situated at the site in Kozacha Bay.

Ukraine’s army stopped 20 attacks by the Russian army in the Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Marinka on Sunday.

Russian missile strikes have injured 34 civilians and apparently damaged railway infrastructure and an ammunition depot in south-eastern Ukraine, hours before an explosion inside Russia derailed a freight train. The attacks on both sides of the border on Monday apparently aimed to disrupt military logistics before a significant Ukrainian counteroffensive against occupying Russian troops, expected to start shortly in the south or the east.

The Ukrainian military says it is locked in a “positional struggle” as fierce fighting continues to rage in Bakhmut, adding it has been able to push back Russian forces after a series of counterattacks.

Four civilians died as a result of Ukrainian shelling on a village just over the border in Russia's Bryansk region on Saturday evening, a local governor said.

A Russian mass missile attack against Ukraine killed 25 people, including five children, on April 28, according to the Ukrainian authorities.

The Russian overnight attack that hit a nine-story residential building in the city of Uman, Cherkasy Oblast, killed 23 people, including four children, as of 7 p.m., the Interior Ministry reported.

The National Police earlier said that at least 18 people had been injured in Uman, nine of whom had been hospitalized.

The number of casualties may grow as the rescue operation continues at the destroyed building.

The attack partially destroyed three upper floors of the apartment building, causing large fires, according to first responders.

Other missiles Russia launched on April 28 targeted Dnipropetrovsk and Kyiv oblasts.

A young woman and a two-year-old child were killed, and four other civilians were injured in the city of Dnipro, according to the regional authorities.

Kyiv Oblast Governor Ruslan Kravchenko said that a high-rise building in Ukrainka, some 50 kilometers south of Kyiv, was damaged by the missile debris.

Two people were injured, including a 13-year-old child who was hospitalized in a Kyiv hospital, according to the Interior Ministry.

Ukraine's air defense shot down 21 of the 23 X-101 and X-55 cruise missiles, as well as two drones, that Russia had launched using strategic Tu-95 aircraft from the Caspian Sea, according to Ukraine's Air Force.

Ukraine’s power grid operator Ukrenergo said the missile attack had not damaged the country's energy infrastructure.

The deliberate killing of civilians at any time and in any place breaches the Geneva Conventions and constitutes a war crime.

Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign minister, has argued that the April 28 mass missile attack is another proof Ukraine needs to be supplied with American-made F-16 fighter jets.

Ukraine has been asking to receive F-16 warplanes to protect its airspace from Russian attacks and strengthen its upcoming counteroffensive. Yet, many allies, most notably the U.S. and Germany, have not backed the idea.

-via Kyiv Independent

~

A fire at a fuel storage facility in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol, caused by an apparent drone strike, has been extinguished, the Moscow-installed governor has said. .

Video footage posted on social media earlier on Saturday showed a large waterside area on fire, with a column of black smoke rising from the burning fuel. Other images showed a huge pall of smoke hanging over the area. More than a dozen fuel tanks are situated at the site in Kozacha Bay.

The strike, reportedly by a “kamikaze” drone, came a day after a wave of missile attacks on Ukrainian cities killed 26 people, including many in an apartment block in Uman in the Cherkasy region.

After the drone strike at 4.30am, a firefighting train was reportedly brought in to try to extinguish the blaze.

“According to preliminary information, the fire was caused by a drone hit,” the city’s Russia-installed governor, Mikhail Razvozhayev, wrote on Telegram.

“The situation is under the control of our firefighters and all operative services,” he said. “Since the volume of fuel is large, it will take time to localise the fire.”

Razvozhayev said the fire was assigned the highest ranking – level four – in terms of how complicated it would be to extinguish. He said it had not caused any casualties and would not hinder fuel supplies in Sevastopol.

Razvozhayev reported earlier this week that the Russian military had destroyed a Ukrainian sea drone that attempted to attack the harbour, and another one had blown up, shattering windows in several apartment buildings but not inflicting any other damage.

Sevastopol has been a regular target of drone attacks, especially in recent weeks. The city, on the Crimean peninsula that Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, has come under repeated air attacks since Russia’s invasion of its neighbour in February last year.

Russian officials have blamed the attacks on Ukraine. The Ukrainian military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday. Kyiv almost never publicly claims responsibility for attacks inside Russia or on Russian-controlled territory in Ukraine.

Russia’s missile strikes on Friday killed 26 people, including five children, as Kyiv said preparations for a counteroffensive against Moscow’s forces were nearly complete.

The most serious casualties were caused by a strike on a residential block in Uman that killed 23 people.

Rescue workers in Uman, the site of an annual Hasidic Jewish pilgrimage, pulled the body of another child from under the rubble on Friday evening. Authorities said four children in the city had been killed by the cruise missile strikes.

Earlier in the day, Dmitry, a 33-year-old resident from Luhansk, an eastern city under Russian control, was looking for his children. “I want to see my children. They are under the rubble,” he said.

Rescuers were using cranes to search for survivors among the remains of the multi-storey housing block in the city of 80,000 inhabitants.

“I’ve seen a lot, but I haven’t lost my children before. Now I want to see my children, alive or dead,” Dmitry said.

-via The Guardian

~

Ukraine’s army stopped 20 attacks by the Russian army in the Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Marinka on Sunday.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported it in its daily evening update published on Facebook.

“The Russian Federation continues to use terror tactics. Today, the enemy launched two missile strikes on the cities of Kramatorsk and Kostiantynivka. Also, throughout the day, it launched 15 air strikes and mounted about 30 attacks using multiple launch rocket systems on the positions of our troops and settlements,” the update said.

“The threat of missile and airstrikes remains high across Ukraine.

“The enemy continues to focus its main efforts on offensive operations on Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Marinka. During the past day, Ukrainian Defense Forces repelled more than 20 enemy attacks on the specified axes. Bakhmut and Mar’inka remain places of fierce fights.”

-via The Guardian

~

Russian missile strikes have injured 34 civilians and apparently damaged railway infrastructure and an ammunition depot in south-eastern Ukraine, hours before an explosion inside Russia derailed a freight train.

The attacks on both sides of the border on Monday apparently aimed to disrupt military logistics before a significant Ukrainian counteroffensive against occupying Russian troops, expected to start shortly in the south or the east.

The Russian strike in the Ukrainian city of Pavlohrad was part of the second wave of missile attacks in just three days; on Friday, 23 people were killed when a missile hit an apartment block in central Uman city, and a woman and her daughter died in Dnipro.

With Kyiv’s allies saying that equipment and newly trained troops promised for the next Ukrainian campaign are in place, Moscow has revived its winter tactics of attempting to orchestrate bombing campaigns far behind Ukrainian frontlines.

It launched 18 cruise missiles in the early hours of Monday morning, although 15 were intercepted by air defences, including the ones aimed at Kyiv. Support from western allies has helped Ukraine improve protection for its cities and the main military sites.

At Pavlohrad, video posted on social media showed a missile strike had caused a significant blaze and secondary detonations.

Among the buildings damaged or destroyed were an industrial zone, 19 apartment buildings and 25 homes, according to Mykola Lukashuk, the head of the Dnipro regional council. Two women were seriously injured.

Russian officials and the Tass state news agency claimed Moscow had hit an ammunition depot and railway infrastructure, hampering military preparations.

“The objectives of the strike were achieved,” the defence ministry said in a statement. “The work of enterprises making ammunition, weapons and military equipment for Ukrainian troops has been disrupted.”

Ukrainian sources said one location hit was a plant that produced solid fuel for Soviet-era rocket motors and had a number of expired solid fuel motors awaiting decommissioning, although that claim could not be immediately verified.

The size of the fire in Pavlohrad suggests Russia may have hit an important arms depot, and the incident comes after Ukraine’s recent attack on an oil storage facility in Sevastopol, Crimea.

“Around 2.30am, the Russian invaders attacked Ukraine from strategic aviation planes,” said a post on the Telegram channel of Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the commander in chief of Ukraine’s armed forces.

Air defence systems were called into action to shield the Kyiv region from Russian missiles, officials said. Ukrainian media reported blasts in the Dnipropetrovsk and Sumy regions.

Senior Ukrainian officials have suggested in recent days that the counteroffensive may be imminent. It will be a critical test of whether Russia can be dislodged from land it seized in 2014 and last year – nearly one-fifth of Ukrainian territory.

“If in a global sense, in a high-percentage mode, we are ready,” Ukraine’s defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov, said during a press conference in Kyiv on Friday. “Then the question [about when to launch] is for the general staff, for the command. As soon as there is God’s will, the weather, and the decision of the commanders – we will do it.”

On Monday an explosion in the Russian region of Bryansk, which borders Ukraine, derailed a freight train, the local governor said in a social media post.

“An unidentified explosive device went off, as a result of which a locomotive of a freight train derailed,” Alexander Bogomaz said on Telegram, adding that there were no casualties reported.

Local authorities said the train was transporting fuel and building materials. Images shared on social media showed several tank carriages laying on their side and smoke rising into the air.

It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the attack, which happened less than 40 miles from the border with Ukraine.

There has been an increase in rail incidents in Russia in the 14 months since Vladimir Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The authorities in Russia have arrested at least 66 Russians on suspicion of railway sabotage since last autumn, according to the independent Russian website Mediazona.

Separately, the governor of Russia’s Leningrad region near St Petersburg said a power line had been blown up overnight and an explosive device found near a second line.

-via The Guardian

~

The Ukrainian military says it is locked in a “positional struggle” as fierce fighting continues to rage in Bakhmut, adding it has been able to push back Russian forces after a series of counterattacks.

“I can definitely confirm the information that the enemy in Bakhmut left some positions after some of our counterattacks,” Serhii Cherevatyi, the spokesperson for the Eastern Grouping of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, told a national broadcaster.

“There is a positional struggle there,” Cherevatyi said, explaining that the frontline was constantly shifting. “Sometimes the enemy has some success after a powerful artillery strike and the destruction of infrastructure, and they can move forward. But we counterattack and often win back our positions after inflicting fire on the enemy.” Cherevatyi added that for all its efforts, Russia still had not been able to “completely” capture Bakhmut.

The spokesperson went on to say that although the Russian military’s airborne units had reinforced positions in Bakhmut, Wagner forces continued to be the ones carrying out the assaults.

“However, due to heavy losses, they have been reinforced by airborne units. In addition, in an effort to capture Bakhmut completely, we also note that the enemy is also using snipers from special units and even special services (counterterrorism, for instance) to hit our positions as much as possible," he said.

Cherevatyi said Russian forces were having to be more mindful of their use of artillery shells and rockets, but rejected claims by Wagner founder and financier Yevgeny Prigozhin that his fighters were being starved of ammunition.

“They have been given a general norm of shells, just like other units of the aggressor,” he said. “Over the past 24 hours, the enemy has fired 304 times at the Lyman-Kupiansk direction with various artillery systems. However, of course, if we take the summer of 2022, they could use an unlimited amount of ammunition along the entire front line non-stop. Now they no longer have this luxury.”

“What Prigozhin is talking about is that they are used to having a lot of ammunition. Now they are forced to limit themselves,” he added.

Cherevatyi concluded by defending Ukraine’s strategy for the region, stating that "the enemy has not been able to take Bakhmut for nine months."

“Thus, we are conducting a successful defense operation and are achieving our main goal: destroying the enemy's military potential, personnel, and equipment to the maximum extent possible," he said. "In particular, Wagner is close to being completely destroyed."

-via CNN

~

Four civilians died as a result of Ukrainian shelling on a village just over the border in Russia's Bryansk region on Saturday evening, a local governor said.

"Four civilians have been killed," Governor Alexander Bogomaz said on the Telegram messaging app. Two other citizens were being treated in hospital, Bogomaz said.

Bogomaz earlier said that one residential building had been completely destroyed and two other houses partially destroyed.

Bogomaz blamed the incident on "Ukrainian nationalists". Ukraine almost never publicly claims responsibility for attacks inside Russia and on Russian-controlled territory in Ukraine.

Both sides deny targeting civilians in the 14-month-old Russian invasion on Ukraine.

"Work is continuing at the site of the incident to remove rubble and clear the area," Bogomaz said. "A state of emergency has been introduced in the village."

Russia's Bryansk region borders Ukraine. The village of Suzemka, where the incident occurred, is around 10 kms (6.2 miles) from the border.

-via Reuters

[spiritualdirections]

Religious leaders have condemned the Russian attacks on Ukraine's power grid as a war crime. International rules of war try to encourage the distinction between combatants and non-combatants, and to limit military targets to combatants. Attacking the power grid in the middle of winter does not serve a military purpose, but is meant to terrorize the civilians, and hence is a violation of the rules of war.

Statement of religious leaders regarding Russian attacks on the Ukrainian power grid

March 24, 2024

“For you Lord, give light to my lamp, my God brightens my darkness.” [Psalm 18, 29]

"On the night of March 22, Russia launched its largest attack against Ukraine’s energy system, deploying over 60 kamikaze drones and almost 90 missiles. Dozens of power facilities were damaged, including thermal and hydroelectric power stations, high-voltage networks, and regional energy grids.

"Millions of civilians across the Vinnytsia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, Khmelnytskyi, Zaporizhzhia, Sumy, Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, and Kharkiv regions now face massive power outages and crippling energy shortages, endangering the most vulnerable and threatening all life-support systems. Kharkiv, a city of 1.5 million inhabitants, is particularly stricken as Russian attacks targeted its main energy facilities, leaving residents without electricity, heat, and hot water on a night when temperatures will plummet below freezing.

"We, leaders of religious organizations in the United States, condemn these Russian attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure as war crimes. We beseech the religious leaders of Russia, especially Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church, to stop supporting the Russian invasion of Ukraine and to urge President Putin to halt terror attacks aimed at innocent civilians. We likewise urge our government and civic authorities to utilize all available just means to protect Ukraine and its people from this brutal aggression."

[follow-up-news]

Russian forces unleashed a nighttime barrage of more than 50 cruise missiles and explosive drones at Ukraine’s power grid Wednesday, targeting a wide area in what President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called a “massive” attack on the day the country celebrates the defeat of Nazism in World War II. The bombardment blasted targets in seven Ukrainian regions, including the Kyiv area and parts of the south and west, damaging homes and the country’s rail network, authorities said. Three people, including an 8-year-old girl, were injured, according to officials. Russia has repeatedly pounded Ukraine’s energy infrastructure during the war that is stretching into its third year and has claimed thousands of lives. By taking out the power, the Kremlin’s forces aim to rob Ukrainian manufacturing of its energy supply, especially military plants, and crush public morale. Russian attacks have damaged nearly half of Ukraine’s power infrastructure since the start of the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, officials say.

[beardedmrbean]

An attack before dawn Monday damaged a bridge linking Russia to Moscow-annexed Crimea that is a key supply route for Kremlin forces in the war with Ukraine, forcing the span's temporary closure for a second time in less than a year. Two people were killed and their daughter was injured.

Vehicle traffic on the Kerch Bridge came to a standstill, while rail traffic across the 19-kilometer (12-mile) span also was halted for about six hours.

The strike was carried out by two Ukrainian maritime drones, Russia’s National Anti-Terrorist Committee said.

Ukrainian officials were coy about taking responsibility, as they have been in past strikes. But in what appeared to be a tacit acknowledgment, Ukrainian Security Service spokesman Artem Degtyarenko said in a statement that his agency would reveal details of how the “bang” was organized after Kyiv has won the war.

The bridge previously was attacked in October, when a truck bomb blew up two of its sections and required months of repair. Moscow decried that assault as an act of terrorism and retaliated by bombarding Ukraine's civilian infrastructure, targeting the country's power grid over the winter.

In Monday's blast, the Ukrainian news portal RBK-Ukraina cited a security services source as saying it was carried out by what it called floating drones. A deputy prime minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, later said on the Telegram messaging service that “today, the Crimea bridge was torn apart by sea drones,” but it was not clear if he was making an official confirmation or referring to earlier reports.

Hours after the attack, video from Russian authorities showed crews picking up debris from the deck of the bridge, a section of which appeared to be sloping to one side, and a damaged black sedan with its passenger door open.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin said authorities were inspecting the damage before determining how long it will take to repair.

The Kerch Bridge is a conspicuous symbol of Moscow's claims on Crimea and an essential land link to the peninsula, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014. The $3.6 billion bridge is the longest in Europe and is crucial for Russia's military operations in southern Ukraine in the nearly 17-month-old war.

Russia has expanded its military forces in Crimea since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Occasional sabotage and other attacks against the Russian military and other facilities on the peninsula have occurred since, with the Kremlin blaming Ukraine.

Those attacks and acts of sabotage haven't discouraged Russians from spending their holidays in Crimea, and as car traffic on the bridge came to a halt, long lines formed at a ferry crossing the Kerch Strait, Russian media reported.

Traffic jams also clogged a highway in the Russian-held part of the Kherson region after Moscow-appointed authorities in Crimea redirected motorists to take the land route to Russia, through the partially occupied regions of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk, according to Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.

The bridge attack comes as Ukrainian forces are pressing a counteroffensive in several sections of the front line. It also happened hours before Russia announced, as expected, that it is halting a deal brokered by the United Nations and Turkey that allows the export of Ukrainian grain during the war.

Russian media identified the dead as Alexei and Natalia Kulik, who were traveling to Crimea for a summer vacation. The 40-year-old Kulik was a truck driver and his 36-year-old wife was a municipal education worker. Their 14-year-old daughter suffered chest and brain injuries.

Kyiv didn’t initially acknowledge responsibility for October’s bridge attack either, but Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar acknowledged earlier this month that Ukraine struck it to derail Russian logistics.

Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, returned to that theme Monday, calling the Ukrainian government a “terrorist organization.”

"We must blow up their houses and houses of their relatives, search and eliminate their accomplices,” he said.

Russian authorities said the attack didn't affect the bridge's piers but damaged the deck on one of two road links. The damage appeared less serious than in October's attack.

Andriy Yusov, a spokesman for Ukraine’s military intelligence department, declined to comment but said: “The peninsula is used by the Russians as a large logistical hub for moving forces and assets deep into the territory of Ukraine. Of course, any logistical problems are additional complications for the occupiers.”

The Security Service of Ukraine posted a redacted version of a popular lullaby, tweaked to say that the bridge “went to sleep again.”

[cyberbenb]

US aid freeze halts support for prosecuting Russian war crimes, Ukraine's energy sector, lawmaker says

The Trump administration’s foreign aid freeze impacted programs supporting the prosecution of Russian war crimes and the restoration of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure after attacks, Ukraine-born Democratic Congressman Eugene Vindman said on Feb. 4, Ukrinform reported.

Vindman’s comments come days after billionaire Elon Musk claimed he had President Donald Trump’s approval to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

Shortly after taking office, the Trump administration effectively froze almost all foreign assistance for 90 days, halting USAID-funded projects worldwide while reviewing expenditures.

Speaking at the Ukraine Week event in Washington, Vindman noted that the cuts include suspending U.S. assistance in war crimes investigations and halting support for international experts assisting in the process.

Programs aimed at rebuilding Ukraine’s infrastructure and power grid, damaged after Russian attacks, have also been suspended, Vindman said while calling on the administration to lift the restrictions.

USAID, the U.S. government’s primary foreign aid agency, has provided over $37 billion in support to Ukraine since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, including $2.6 billion in humanitarian aid, $5 billion in development assistance, and over $30 billion in direct budget support.

The White House declared on Feb. 3 that “under President Trump, the waste, fraud, and abuse ends now,” accusing USAID of misusing taxpayer funds on supposedly “ridiculous” projects. The listed “waste and abuse programs” did not include anything related to Ukraine.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been named interim USAID administrator, reinforcing rumors that the agency will be merged with the State Department.

In the meantime, Ukraine’s parliamentary humanitarian and information policy committee has begun consultations with European partners to temporarily replace U.S. assistance.

Vindman, a former U.S. Army officer, gained prominence as a whistleblower in the 2019 scandal involving Trump’s phone call with President Volodymyr Zelensky. In the call, Trump pressured Ukraine to launch an investigation into Joe Biden’s family.

Vindman was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives on Nov. 6, 2024 — the same day Trump won the presidency and secured his return to the White House.

Trump wants Ukraine’s ‘rare earths’ — What critical materials does it actually have?

President Donald Trump came out on Feb. 3 saying he was looking to cut a deal with Ukraine by giving the war-torn country weapons and aid in return for its “rare earths and other things.” “We’re looking to do a deal with Ukraine, where they’re going to secure what we’re

The Kyiv IndependentDominic Culverwell

[mariacallous]

Russia’s renewed and much broader assault on Ukraine’s energy sector this spring, which has now destroyed roughly half of the country’s electricity generation capacity, represents an explosive blow to Kyiv’s resilience, civilian morale, and industrial production. What’s worse, the ongoing Russian attacks on the vulnerable energy system offer few prospects of a quick fix that could right the situation before Ukraine enters its third winter of the war.

Since early this year, Russia has set out to finish the job it failed to complete in early 2023—the destruction of Ukraine’s civilian energy sector, especially the power plants that provide light and heat for millions of Ukrainians.

Beginning in March, Russia has specifically targeted Ukraine’s biggest power plants in six massive waves of missile and drone strikes, wiping out about 9 gigawatts of electricity generation, or half the country’s total. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told a reconstruction conference in Berlin on Tuesday that Russian strikes have wiped out 80 percent of Ukraine’s big coal- and gas-fired power plants and one-third of its hydroelectric facilities.

Especially as a result of the last two big attacks, in early May and early June, Ukraine has had to ration electricity for industrial and residential consumers, leaving many with power for only short periods of time; some cities, such as Kharkiv, on the country’s eastern front line are virtually powerless. Russia’s assaults, which the U.K. ambassador to the United Nations has argued are in part an attempt to terrorize civilians, are even a subject for the U.N. Security Council.

As bad as Russia’s attacks have been so far, they could get worse. Russia has already hit some of Ukraine’s natural gas storage facilities—underground bunkers that are used to store fuel both for domestic needs and to backstop European consumption. Further Russian strikes there could expand the pain of energy attacks beyond Ukraine’s borders, right at a time when Europe is scrambling to find a solution for gas transit flows across Ukraine into landlocked Eastern European countries, especially Austria. 

The other big worry is that Russia, after having already destroyed Ukraine’s main sources of baseload power generation, will finally knock its remaining three nuclear power plants off the grid. (Russia has since the early days of the war occupied Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station, using it as a shield for its occupation of south-central Ukraine, but the station—Europe’s largest nuclear facility—is in shutdown and not generating power.)

“It sounds mad to attack the nuclear power stations, but Russia could hit the transformers near the nuclear plants. If they did this, the power system will lose its unity, and the country will be split into different energy islands, some with spotty power and some entirely without,” said Andrian Prokip, an energy expert at the Wilson Center’s Kennan Institute in Kyiv.

The undeniable success of this year’s Russian assault is a sharp contrast to its ultimately failed bid in the first winter of the war to freeze Ukraine into submission. Russia has thrown more ordnance at more vulnerable targets this time around, leading to longer-lasting damage that will be far costlier to repair. Only after the big strikes in early May did Ukraine have to start rationing power to residential and industrial consumers. There is concern among big industry, such as the country’s once-vaunted steel and iron industry, that the power outages could kneecap what appeared to be a miraculous wartime recovery of industrial output.

“The difference is that before they mainly targeted transmission lines and substations and now they are destroying power generation plants,” said Slawomir Matuszak, a Ukraine specialist at the Centre for Eastern Studies in Warsaw. “The previous attacks were relatively easy to recover from—a question of days or weeks. But you’re looking at one to two years now for a real rebuild, if that even makes sense, because they can simply be attacked again.”

For Ukraine’s leaders, the renewed Russian strikes pose a threat to the country’s already strained ability to sustain years of unremitting bombing assaults, social and economic disruption, and the increased mobilization of service members. The new campaign has redoubled Ukraine’s desperation to bolster its air defenses in order to protect what’s left of its energy system. 

“Russia’s goal hasn’t changed—they seek to destroy our energy system and use it as a weapon against our citizens,” said Kira Rudik, a Ukrainian parliamentarian who leads the pro-European party Holos and who described the constant disruptions to daily life from the power outages that come atop Russia’s ceaseless use of stand-off weapons to batter civilian residences across the country, including her own. (Zelensky said Tuesday that Russia had launched 135 glide bombs in just the last day.)

“So we are saying, get us the F-16s, get us the Mirages, get us to this luxury point where we can go to bed and know that we will wake up in the morning,” Rudik said, referring to U.S.- and French-made fighter jets. “In Ukraine, we do not have this luxury.”

The increased pace of Russian attacks on Ukraine’s infrastructure has also injected fresh urgency into the question of how and when to leverage Moscow’s frozen assets for Ukraine’s assistance. U.S. and European leaders are working on a plan to turn the proceeds of frozen Russian cash into a large loan for Ukraine. For those on the receiving end of Russian attacks, even discussions such as those at the reconstruction conference in Berlin seem too focused on rebuilding Ukraine after the war, rather than reinforcing Ukrainians’ will to resist now.

“We need the money now,” Rudik said. “We have a simple task before us: to survive the summer and get through the winter somehow.”

Some Western countries are heeding Ukraine’s pleas for more air defense, which could help protect both cities and critical infrastructure from Russian attacks, especially after the devastation unleashed in the May and June strikes. Germany is now mulling the dispatch of a fourth Patriot air defense battery, with Chancellor Olaf Scholz urging allies to do more; Italy is preparing to send more air defense systems of its own, while even recalcitrant countries such as Spain are sending more air defense ammunition. Late last week, the Biden administration included more air defense missiles in its latest aid package for Ukraine.

Getting more air defense is a necessary but hardly sufficient condition to begin rebuilding Ukraine’s battered electricity sector. Even at big plants that had an air defense umbrella, such as Kyiv’s critical Trypilla generating station, Ukrainian forces simply ran out of ammo under Russia’s big assault in April; the plant was demolished. But even with better air defenses, energy experts doubt more than 2 to 3 gigawatts of power generation capacity could be rebuilt before winter. That would still leave a big shortfall in power generation, not to mention the ongoing damage to combined heat-and-power plants that provide central heating during Ukraine’s brutal winters.

One short-term, but expensive, fix would be to rely on more electricity imports from Europe. Just before this year’s Russian assault began, Ukraine was actually exporting excess electricity production to Europe—but that was soon reversed. Today, Ukraine can import about 1.7 gigawatts of electricity from Europe and in a pinch can even get more than 2 gigawatts of power. The problem is that imported electricity is more expensive than the subsidized power Ukraine generated at home, exacerbating the country’s already strained finances. 

The other solution, long broached in Ukraine, is to build more small, decentralized power plants, including small gas-fired turbines and renewable sources such as solar and wind power. The push for more renewables has actually increased during the war, and especially in the wake of this spring’s Russian onslaught, as Ukraine seeks new sources of power generation. 

On Tuesday, members of the G-7+ Energy Coordination Group and Ukraine’s government outlined plans to make the electricity sector more resilient, including through more distributed generation. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Tuesday at the Berlin conference that Brussels is raising money for urgent power sector repairs as well as a host of small-scale generators. “The aim is to help decentralize the power system and thus increase resilience,” she said.

The biggest advantage of replacing hulking, centralized power plants with a lot of smaller, widely scattered sources of power is that they are a lot harder to blow up with scarce Russian missiles.

“If you have sources of microgeneration, and lots of them, then Russia will not have enough missiles to hit all of them, even if they knew where they were,” Prokip said. “So distributed generation is the right way to go, but the government didn’t take enough steps to do this when it could.”

[xindunpower]

Xindun UPS Inverter Charger Solved Ukraine Power Outage

At present, as the attacks on Ukraine's infrastructure continue, all nuclear power plants and most thermal and hydroelectric power plants in the country have been temporarily shut down, and power transmission facilities have also been damaged.

Ukraine's population is experiencing an unprecedented humanitarian crisis as power shortages worsen due to shutdowns at several power stations in Ukraine, and electricity consumption continues to grow due to deteriorating weather conditions.

In response to the power outage in Ukraine, why not use an ups inverter charger?

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If you are interested in our solar products, welcome to contact us any time.

[darkmaga-returns]

October 23, 2024

Ukraine - Zelenski Begs Russia To Renew Deals He Had Botched

The actor who has been playing the President of Ukraine for a while is getting cold feet. Winter is coming and the energy networks of Ukraine are near to the point of total breakdown.

There could have been agreements in place to prevent that. But the Ukrainian side had botched those deals. Now Zelenski is begging to renew them.

In late 2022 the Russian military launched a bombing campaign against electricity switching stations in Ukraine. A lot of transformers got blown up. The Ukrainian military responded by concentrating its air defenses near electricity stations. That was exactly the effect the Russian's had asked for. The air defense installations, not the electricity stations, had been their real target.

After splitting from the Soviet Union, Ukraine had had the best air defenses money could buy. During the fall and winter of 2022 most of it had been destroyed. The Russian campaign against electricity stations came to a halt.

In 2023/24 the Ukrainian military started its own campaign against infrastructure in Russia. Several refineries were hit by drones and went up into flames. Gasoline production in Russia was falling significantly and export of gasoline had to be stopped for a while.

The Russians retaliated by renewing their campaign against Ukraine's electricity network. But this time the targets were not just switching stations but the generation facility themselves. The non-nuclear electricity production in Ukraine got decimated.

In its daily briefings the Russian Ministry of Defense called the attacks on Ukrainian electricity stations a direct retaliation for Ukrainian attacks on Russian proper. For example:

This morning, in response to the Kiev regime's attempts to damage objects of Russian power infrastructure and economy, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation delivered a group strike by long-range precision weaponry at objects of the Ukrainian military-industrial infrastructure and AFU aviation bases.

With their generation capacity in danger and under the threat of blackouts the Ukrainian government got to its senses - at least for a while. Secret negotiations were arranged in Doha, Qatar, to stop the infrastructure attacks on both sides.

In August 2024, shortly after the Ukrainian army had launched an incursion into the Kursk oblast of Russia, the Washington Post reported:

Ukraine and Russia were set to send delegations to Doha this month to negotiate a landmark agreement halting strikes on energy and power infrastructure on both sides, diplomats and officials familiar with the discussions said, in what would have amounted to a partial cease-fire and offered a reprieve for both countries. But the indirect talks, with the Qataris serving as mediators and meeting separately with the Ukrainian and Russian delegations, were derailed by Ukraine’s surprise incursion into Russia’s western Kursk region last week, according to the officials. ... For more than a year, Russia has pounded Ukraine’s power grid with a barrage of cruise missiles and drone strikes, causing irreparable damage to power stations and rolling blackouts across the country. Meanwhile, Ukraine has struck Russia’s oil facilities with long-range drone attacks that have set ablaze refineries, depots and reservoirs, reducing Moscow’s oil refining by an estimated 15 percent and raising gas prices around the world. ... A diplomat briefed on the talks said Russian officials postponed their meeting with Qatari officials after Ukraine’s incursion into western Russia. Moscow’s delegation described it as “an escalation,” the diplomat said, adding that Kyiv did not warn Doha about its cross-border offensive.

Ukraine had to pay a heavy price for the Kursk incursion. The elite troops it had sent failed to reach their target, a nuclear power station near Kursk, and soon got decimated. The attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure continued with full force.

Three month later, with the Kursk incursion as well as its electricity network near to total failure, the Ukrainian government is again changing course. It is begging to renew the deals it had botched.