Media: Russian attacks push Ukraine’s energy grid to brink, officials warn

A wave of massive Russian attacks is straining Ukraine’s energy infrastructure to the brink of collapse, officials and analysts told The Washington Post, as Moscow seeks to demoralise the country while the White House pressures Kyiv to negotiate a peace deal.

Since October, a series of Russian drone and missile strikes targeting energy facilities has caused widespread power shortages across Ukraine, just as winter sets in. Sources familiar with the situation warn that the attacks could disable the transmission systems that transport electricity from the west—where most of Ukraine’s power is currently produced—to the east, potentially splitting the country in two.

“We are, if not at the brink” of a complete blackout in the east of the country “then very close to it,” said a senior European diplomat, speaking on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue.

The European diplomat also said that, in addition to threatening to split Ukraine’s power network, the Kremlin is “pursuing another strategy to create [energy] islands,” in which individual regions would “be cut off from any electricity generation and electricity deliveries as well by the existing transmission system.”

Despite the sustained attacks and what officials describe as a clear strategy to disrupt electricity transmission between the country’s east and west, Ukraine’s grid continues to hold.

“We are one step from a [full] blackout in Kyiv now,” said one person familiar with the energy crisis.

By Sabina Mammadli