Workers stand among debris in a damaged DTEK thermal power plant after a Russian attack in Ukraine, Thursday, May 2, 2024. Ukrainian energy workers are struggling to repair the damage from intensifying airstrikes aimed at pulverizing Ukraine’s energy grid, hobbling …KHARKIV, Ukraine — Russia early on made clear it considered Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure a legitimate target as its armies sought to conquer the country’s smaller neighbor.
On the afternoon of Friday, May 3, a Russian glide bomb tore through the cloudless sky and landed on this quiet residential neighborhood, annihilating two houses and killing an 82-year-old woman. As stunned onlookers gathered around the smoldering ruins and firefighters put out the last glowing embers, Mr.
“In October and November 2023, the Russians tried to attack our power grid without much success,” he said. “They took a pause and gathered intelligence on our energy system — what is currently undergoing maintenance, what is reliable, where our air defense systems are located, and so on.” “They know very well how the energy industry operates and where its vulnerable points are located,” he said. “So they changed tack: Instead of targeting the high-voltage power grid, they strike three or four power-generating units at once with up to 20 drones and 10 or 15 missiles.”
Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov believes that the Russians are now trying to render the city “uninhabitable” by methodically destroying its critical infrastructure. “The plant’s restoration involves the manufacture of exclusive equipment for the production units,” Oleksandr Minkovich, the plant’s managing director, said at the time. “If the work is fully financed, production is supported and the equipment is delivered, the reconstruction process will take more than a year.”