Alla Hurska
On May 8, Russia initiated yet another assault on Ukraine by launching 55 cruise and ballistic missiles, accompanied by 21 attack drones, on Kyiv’s critical infrastructure (T.me/ComAFUA, May 8). The strike targeted energy infrastructure sites in the regions of Poltava, Kirovohrad, Zaporizhzhia, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Vinnytsia (Pravda.com.ua, May 8). DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private investor in the energy industry, reported severe damage to its equipment. The strike marked the fifth major attack on DTEK’s facilities over the past month and a half. Russia has attacked DTEK’s thermal power plants (TPP) about 180 times, killing three and injuring 51 (T.me/dtek_ua, May 8). These targeted strikes from Russia are already leading to energy supply and environmental issues for Ukraine, and if continued, Ukraine will fall further into an energy crisis.
These targeted assaults on Ukraine’s critical infrastructure reflect one of the central tenets of Moscow’s plan to weaken and demoralize Kyiv. Since February 2022, Russia’s hybrid strategy has consistently involved the deliberate crippling of civilian infrastructure. Moscow has sought to strike public health and education facilities, agricultural sites, telecommunication hubs, dams, railways, pipelines, ports, and power plants—including the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), the largest nuclear power plant in Europe (see EDM June 1, 2023, June 19, 2023, June 28, 2023). According to Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, since the full-scale invasion began, Russia has destroyed or damaged approximately 250,000 residential buildings, around 4,000 schools, over a thousand hospitals, and many other civilian facilities (Kmu.gov.ua, May 3). Some estimate that Ukraine’s reconstruction would currently require $486 billion (Delo.ua, May 3).
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