IGOR GIELOW
SÃO PAULO, SP (FOLHAPRESS)
Vladimir Putin’s forces again attacked Ukraine’s energy grid this Thursday (21) after a six-month break, raising fears that a new wave of actions aimed at leaving the country in the dark has begun.
Russia deployed 43 cruise missiles, 36 of which Kiev claims to have intercepted. Cities in the center, northeast and west of the country were affected. “There were partial blackouts in the regions of Rivne, Zhytomyr, Kiev, Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv,” operator Ukrenergo said on Telegram.
On October 10 last year, after the bridge connecting occupied Crimea to Russia was attacked for the first time, Moscow began a campaign against energy distribution plants in the invaded country.
The almost weekly actions lasted until January, the height of winter in the Northern Hemisphere, with Ukraine being left in the dark in sub-zero degree cold.
The waves became sporadic, with the last recorded in March, when Russia used 81 missiles in one of its largest attacks of the entire war. Interestingly, Moscow spared the production centers, which is easily explainable in the case of the country’s nuclear matrix – before the war, 24% of energy came from this source, but Russia took over and in practice deactivated 1 of Kiev’s 4 plants.
“Winter is coming,” wrote deputy Andrii Osadtchuk on X (formerly Twitter), making reference to the dark catchphrase from the TV series Game of Thrones. At least 18 people were injured in the attacks, while 2 deaths recorded in the country occurred in artillery shelling.
Obviously, it is not possible to know whether Moscow will continue with the actions, but they may indicate the gestation of a new phase in the war. Compared to last season, Kiev has access to more Western air defenses, although they are concentrated in centers such as the capital – the destination of 20 of the missiles this morning.
The current stage of the conflict is marked by Ukraine’s difficulties in advancing its counteroffensive decisively, and the arrival of autumn rains next month serves as the deadline for this.
Afterwards, the terrain is largely unsuitable for troop and armored movements. Not that it is impossible, but it becomes more difficult and favors exchanges of fire in static positions and aerial campaigns with missiles, in the Russian case.
In recent weeks, Ukraine has also escalated its attacks against the Crimean peninsula, which Putin annexed after the fall of Kiev’s pro-Moscow government in 2014. There, there have already been actions against anti-aircraft batteries, bridges, airfields and the headquarters of the Navy. Black Sea in Sevastopol.
This Thursday, the SBU, Ukraine’s intelligence service, stated that it carried out a successful attack against the Saki air base, where Black Sea Fleet naval fighters and other aircraft are located. It is not yet possible to estimate the damage, according to Kiev, caused by an initial attack with suicide drones, which occupied air defenses, followed by the action of land-based versions of the Neptune anti-ship missile.
The tactic has already been used to destroy a powerful anti-aircraft system not far from Saki at the end of August. Now, Russia has only said that it shot down 19 drones near the base. It had been the target of one of the most effective Ukrainian attacks in Crimea so far, when at least eight Russian fighter jets were destroyed on the runway in August last year.
The attacks on the peninsula have added to Kiev’s already anxious Western allies. There are credible reports that the US considers the 2014 annexation a fait accompli, even if illegal, and that it would be wise to keep it as a piece of eventual peace negotiations. President Volodimir Zelenski refuses, proposing the total eviction of his territory.
All of this has generated tensions that are mixed with domestic factors, as in the case of Poland, whose prime minister said on Wednesday (20) that he would no longer send weapons to Ukraine. This is because the countries are in a dispute over a Polish embargo on grain from Kiev, whose flow through the Black Sea has been interrupted since Putin left an agreement for this purpose.
As there will be elections in October in the country, the far-right opposition attacks the right-wing government, criticizing pro-Ukraine policies, which helps to understand Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki’s explosive stance.
The post Russia resumes attack on energy grid and causes blackouts in Ukraine appeared first in Jornal de Brasília.
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