The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and the Wall Street Journal reported that Ukrainian energy facilities have resumed normal power supply after being bombed by Russia for several months without power cuts, and are able to export electricity for the first time after six months. This reflects the fact that Ukraine has withstood a Russian attack on its power grid.
Since October last year, Russia has deliberately continued to attack Ukraine’s energy facilities, causing power outages and blackouts, and many cities and towns in its territory have been plunged into darkness in the cold winter. In the same month, Ukraine was forced to stop exporting electricity, and now it has the ability to export excess electricity. According to the agreement between Ukraine and the “European Transmission Dispatching Center Association”, Ukraine can export 400 megawatts of electricity.
Ukrainian Energy Minister Kharushenko has signed an executive order to authorize the export of electricity, but domestic users are still given priority. He emphasized that the power system has been able to produce additional power for nearly two months, and the Ukrainian people no longer face power cuts. “The worst winter is over. The next step is to export electricity, so that we can create additional sources of financing for the reconstruction of destroyed and damaged energy facilities,” he said.
Kharushenko also praised the “huge project” of engineers and international partners to restore Ukraine’s power system. The British Ministry of Defense mentioned that the Ukrainian side has been able to find replacements for damaged components, including high-voltage transformers weighing at least 100 metric tons, and that the frequency of Russian attacks on Ukrainian power grids has been greatly reduced in the past month.
However, Ukraine’s state energy company Ukrenergo warned that Russia cannot be expected to stop its attacks.
Since the war began last February, Russia has launched more than 1,200 missiles and drones against Ukrainian energy facilities. Analysts in Western countries judged that Russia’s attack on Ukraine’s power system was aimed at weakening the support of the Ukrainian and European people for Kiev’s resistance to Russia. The Ministry of Defense believes that Moscow’s move “most likely failed”.
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