What remains of Ukrainian energy facilities after Russia's repeated strikes?

SadaNews - The Russian army is targeting energy facilities and stations in its ongoing war against Ukraine, causing significant losses to these facilities, the effects of which are reflected on the people who Kyiv says are now freezing from the cold.

A report by Omar Abdel Latif highlighted Russia's targeting of Ukrainian oil facilities, the losses sustained by these installations, and the resulting social and economic impacts.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier confirmed damage to energy stations in his country, following major Russian attacks targeting the energy infrastructure in the Zaporizhia and Mykolaiv regions (south), Dnipro (central), as well as Kyiv, where nearly a million households alone were affected by electricity outages.

These attacks also included transformer stations and main transmission lines, along with the Burshtyn and Dnipro thermal power generation stations in the Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv regions in western Ukraine, leading to emergency power outages and disruption of nuclear power plant operations, especially in western Ukraine.

According to Ukrainian officials, Russia has bombed all generation and transformer stations in Ukraine during the war, leaving only 3 nuclear power stations relying on for 70 to 85% of the country's electricity needs.

Ukrainian accusations repeatedly state that Moscow's goal is not only to cut energy supplies but also to target nuclear energy facilities through the substations that supply nuclear power stations with electricity, posing a risk to the reactors. This was warned by Rafael Grossi, the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, who stated that these developments serve as a stark reminder of the risks threatening nuclear safety and security.

According to a report by Al Jazeera, targeting energy stations in Ukraine leaves economic and social impacts, primarily long outages of electricity, water, and heating supplies, with the deficit reaching between 5 and 6 gigawatts, coinciding with a cold wave and temperatures reaching more than 20 degrees below zero.

Russian attacks have resulted in the deaths and injuries of hundreds of civilians and forced nearly a million Ukrainians to live without heating or electricity, as confirmed by the European Commission, which stated that it has sent around 9,500 generators to Ukraine to compensate for the shortfall.

The report also indicates that Russian energy has been a target for Ukraine as well, with Kyiv bombing several oil refineries in the Volgograd region, Krasnodar region, and other stations in Luhansk (in the Russian-controlled Donbas region of eastern Ukraine) and Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.

This aims to cripple the logistical supplies of the Russian army of vital materials, primarily fuel, depriving it of export revenues and disrupting the Russian war effort by continuously damaging the economic infrastructure.

The impact on negotiations

Regarding whether Russia's targeting of Ukrainian energy facilities affects negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv, Ukrainian political analyst Maria Zolkina downplayed the significance of these negotiations, stating that Russia wants concessions from her country and to prevent it from entering into defensive alliances, and thus negotiations - in her words - will not bring the two sides closer to reaching a final agreement.

The Ukrainian president announced that he accepted a proposal from US President Donald Trump to hold a meeting with the Russian side in Miami next week.

In a statement to Al Jazeera, Zolkina accused Russia of targeting civilians, saying that people in Ukraine are freezing to death in their homes due to Russian targeting of energy facilities.

She also confirmed that Ukraine does not cut electricity to the Russian capital, but strikes Russian oil facilities to prevent Moscow from selling oil and continuing the war against Ukraine.

As for the Russian researcher and political analyst Elena Suponina, she stated - from Al Jazeera's studio alongside the Ukrainian political analyst - that the current escalation does not affect the continuation of negotiations, but if it increases, it will hinder the peace process.

She pointed out that Russia has committed to a truce for a week, and "the US president appreciated this matter and did not blame Russia for resuming hostilities," confirming that the Russian army is advancing on the ground and that there are instructions to deliver very precise strikes to Ukraine.

Source: Al Jazeera