ISW named the reason for Ukraine’s limited ability to protect its own energy infrastructure
A severe shortage of critical air defense missiles is hampering the Defense Forces’ ability to protect its critical infrastructure from attacks by the Russian Federation.
This was reported in a report by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
The executive director of the energy company DTEK, Dmytro Sakharuk, in an interview with the Kyiv Post, said that for every interceptor missile of the Air Force, to protect against Russian attacks on the energy system, the military aggressor has from five to six missiles to launch against Ukraine.
According to him, if Russia launches 10 missiles at any target in Ukraine, the Defence Forces will have to respond with at least 12 air defence missiles to effectively defend against the attack.
Sakharuk emphasized that the large difference between the required and actual ratio of Ukrainian air defense systems to attacking Russian missiles means that the lack of interceptor missiles makes it impossible to cover energy system facilities that Ukraine has already repaired or is repairing.
The ISW report also noted that Russia’s campaign of air strikes on Ukraine’s power grid has already placed severe constraints on the country’s electricity generation capacity.
"Russian forces were able to exploit the lack of modern Western air defense systems to maximize damage to the country’s energy capabilities during 2024," the Institute for the Study of War report said.
Attacks on the Ukrainian energy system
In October 2022, the Russian aggressor began large-scale shelling of Ukrainian energy infrastructure facilities. During the autumn-winter, a large number of transformer substations, power lines and thermal power plants were damaged in all regions of Ukraine.
In the spring of 2023, the aggressor reduced the frequency of attacks on energy infrastructure, and DTEK repaired some of its capacities.
However, on March 22, 2024, Russia launched its largest missile attack since the invasion began. On that day, the largest thermal power plants, hydroelectric power stations and other energy system facilities were damaged. Afterwards, the aggressor continued to regularly strike the infrastructure of Ukraine and damaged almost all thermal power plants.
As a result of shelling in the spring and early summer of this year, DTEK lost 90% of its generating capacity. The company invests all funds in restoring damaged and destroyed thermal power plants. Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, DTEK thermal power plants have been fired upon by the enemy more than 180 times.
Ukraine has introduced emergency and planned power outage schedules due to a lack of power and generation in the system.
27 June 2024 ã., 08:30
