Ukrainians Expect More Russian Attacks on Energy Grid

'Hundreds of millions' already necessary for repairs: Ukrainian national grid chief tells Atlantic Council

Firefighters work at a site of a thermal power plant damaged by a missile strike in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Sept. 11, 2022. Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine/Handout via Reuters

Ukrainian officials described Russian strikes on the nation’s energy infrastructure and detailed the resources they say are needed to recover, on the heels of billions in U.S. and other aid to the Eastern European country, during a Nov. 28 event hosted by an influential Washington-based think tank.

“He [Vladimir Putin] is sure that this winter is a focal point for him to show that he can make sure that Ukrainians will not survive,” Oksana Nechyporenko, director of the Ukraine Crisis Coordination Center and former chief of staff to Ukraine Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk, said during the Atlantic Council event.

Russian aerial assaults on the Ukrainian grid have seriously degraded the country’s energy infrastructure, leading the government to impose emergency blackouts across the country.

“EU nations expect the latest attacks to prompt a new wave of refugees and current refugees have been urged to remain abroad over the winter,” energy experts with the Center for Strategic and International Studies wrote on Nov. 8.

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a ceremony to mark the 75th anniversary of the Federal Medical-Biological Agency in Moscow on Nov. 9, 2022. Sputnik/Mikhail Metzel/Pool via Reuters

Russia’s recent missile and drone strikes on the grid have already led the United States to provide more financial support to Ukraine.

Samantha Power, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, announced in October that the United States would spend $55 million on energy infrastructure in Ukraine—including funding for generators, as well as money to repair and maintain existing systems.

“As Putin continues to target Ukraine’s electricity system, the U.S. is working to help keep the lights on,” Power wrote on Twitter on Nov. 25, highlighting recent U.S. efforts to supply generators.

The White House’s Nov. 15 request to Congress sought $37.7 billion in additional aid to Ukraine. That encompassed $1.1 billion “to secure and repair Ukraine’s energy sector, and to address Ukraine’s energy supply.”

Ukraine needs new high-voltage equipment to replace infrastructure destroyed in Russian attacks, according to Lana Zerkal, former deputy minister of foreign affairs of Ukraine.

Melinda Haring of the Atlantic Council urged Zerkal to produce a list of equipment that Ukraine needs, saying she would be “very happy to circulate that list in Washington.”

Speakers Describe Effects of Russian Strikes

People shop in a supermarket as Kharkiv suffers an electricity outage, in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Oct. 17, 2022. Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters

“It’s like the start of the war all over again,” Nechyporenko said, noting that Ukrainian families must coordinate among themselves to acquire communal generators.

Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, CEO of Ukraine’s national grid operator, Ukrenergo, said Russia’s systematic attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, beginning on Oct. 10, have resulted in the “massive, vicious destruction” of power plants and portions of the country’s grid.

“We are unfortunately expecting another attack, and we understand that this attack will happen until they probably exhaust all their heavy missile fleet,” he said.

Kudrytskyi told the panel that mobile generators from foreign countries could bridge the gap for people lacking water, electricity, and heating. Larger mobile power plants could also help address Ukraine’s pressing energy demands, he said.

At a BRSM gas station, an employee stands inside the shop during a power outage in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Oct. 28, 2022. Paula Bronstein/Getty Images

“Equipment, electricity from abroad, and mobile generators—this is my wish list,” he said, in answer to a question from the audience.

Kudrytskyi estimated that it would take “several hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars” to replace damaged equipment at substations and power plants but declined to comment about what it might cost to acquire additional air defense systems to protect that infrastructure.

“If you compare this with the price for refugees in Europe, this is peanuts,” Zerkal said.

Oleksandra Azarkhina, Ukraine’s deputy minister of infrastructure, said Ukrainians need water filtration devices, particularly in the south and east of the country. She later recommended that audience members donate to UNITED24, a venue for aid created by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

UNITED24 replaced “Aid for Ukraine,” a website with ties to Sam Bankman-Fried’s collapsed FTX crypto exchange.

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried testifies during a hearing before the House Financial Services Committee on Capitol Hill on Dec. 8, 2021. Alex Wong/Getty Images

UNITED24 is “directly connected to all state funds,” Azarkhina said.

Haring recommended that Americans donate to Razom, a U.S.-based nonprofit that began during the Maidan protests of late 2013 and early 2014. Razom President Dora Chomiak “worked for the independent Soros foundation in Kyiv from 1991 to 1992,” according to her biography on Razom’s website.

US–Ukraine Coordination on Energy Not New

Firefighters work to put out a fire in an energy infrastructure facility that was hit by a Russian missile in Zhytomyr, Ukraine, on Oct. 18, 2022. State Emergency Service of Ukraine/Handout via Reuters

Even before the current war began, the U.S. Department of Energy was coordinating with Ukraine to reduce the country’s energy dependence on Russia.

A 2018 report from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory noted that Russia historically supplied much of Ukraine’s natural gas and nuclear fuel.

In April 2014, after the Maidan protests ousted Ukraine’s pro-Russian president and Russia subsequently annexed Crimea, the Obama White House announced that various teams would be sent to Ukraine—including energy experts.

One interagency group was dispatched to help the state secure gas supplies in place of Russia via reverse flows from Slovakia, Poland, and Hungary.

In September, Ukraine reached an agreement to receive 2 billion cubic meters of natural gas from the United States.