Russian power engineers help Russian troops to attack Ukrainian energy system

Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, the head of Ukrenergo, the national energy company, has stated that attacks on the Ukrainian energy system were planned by the Russian military together with power engineers.

Source: Kudrytskyi in a comment to Financial Times

Quote: "Attacks are planned and carried out not only by the Russian military, but also by Russian power engineers."

Kudrytskyi states that Russian engineers knew the Ukrainian power system "like the back of their hand" because it was connected to Russia's system before the full-scale invasion last February.

But now Ukrainian engineers better understand the Russian strategy and can take measures aimed at minimising the consequences of the attacks, Kudrytskyi added.

Ukrainian officials state that Russia conducted a systematic campaign aimed at destroying transformers located in key nodes of the power grid distribution system, and not the power plants themselves, FT writes.

The goal was to break up the grid into isolated islands and prevent electricity from flowing between regions, power experts say. A significant part of Ukraine’s energy-generating capacity is located in the west and reaches the centre and east via high-voltage lines.

Background: 

On 1 January, Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, the head of Ukrenergo [national energy company], stated that in theory there is a possibility of a complete blackout, but in practice he does not see such a danger now.

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