"Taras, a power plant worker, was working in the control room when Russian missiles hit the plant en masse. He had to stay late to complete important tasks when the air raid siren went off and his colleagues ran for their lives.
After the loud explosions, a cloud of smoke rose and darkness fell. Fires broke out, and missile fragments pierced the roof of the huge complex and brought it down on the heads of the workers. Following protocol, Taras closed the coal-fired power plant with a rapid heartbeat,” Associated Press.
The Russian-Ukrainian war is unprecedented in the world, as the energy system has become the target of enemy attacks. The first attacks on energy facilities were launched by the Russian army on the eve of the heating season in October 2022.
“Delivering a speech at a meeting of the Russian Security Council, Vladimir Putin said that the Russian armed forces had launched a massive long-range precision strike on Ukraine's energy, military command and control, and communications facilities,” Argumenty i Fakty reported.
The Russian president called the massive strike “a response to the actions of the Kyiv regime,” recalling “sabotage attacks at the Kursk nuclear power plant and the explosion of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline.”
“For many months, everyone was wondering where the main red line was that separated Russia's harsh reaction from lenient measures. It seems that this line, at least with regard to Ukraine, has been determined - it was the terrorist attack on the Crimean bridge,” AiF writes.
"The United States believes that the Russian Federation planned massive shelling of Ukraine before the explosion on the Kerch Bridge on October 8.
This was stated by the White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby, CNN reports. “This was most likely something they had been planning for quite some time. That doesn't mean that the explosion on the Crimean bridge may have accelerated some of their plans,” Kirby said. He noted that attacks of this magnitude could not have been planned in a few days,"Novynarnyaquoted the White House spokesman as saying.
"A total of 128 attacks were recordedover the past three days. As a result, more than two hundred different objects were damaged, including 28 energy infrastructure facilities,” Ukrinform quoted Shmygal as saying.
Ukrainians have learned to live according to blackout schedules, use gas burners at home, and are used to the noise from generators on the streets.
“It's inspiring to see people doing what they have to do despite the continuous blackouts and power outages after regular Russian missile attacks on the country's power grid,” Sasha Maslov commented on the photo on his Instagram.
During the New Year's holidays, the Russian army intensively shelled Ukraine, and due to the New Year's Eve attack, residents of Zaporizhzhia and the region celebrated the New Year 2023 without electricity.
The massive shelling of critical infrastructure affects the operation of nuclear power plants. After the shelling on November 23, 2022, all four Ukrainian nuclear power plants shut down for less than a day at a time. And the ZNPP, which has been under Russian occupation since the beginning of the war, periodically loses external power and goes into an emergency state.
"According to the UN and the World Bank, Ukraine has lost more than half of its energy capacity in the first 14 months of the war, and the situation continues to deteriorate. Much of the country's solar energy production has also been lost as areas in the south of the country with more sunlight have fallen under Russian occupation,” AP noted.
On December 13, 2022, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev commented on the Ukrainian president's calls for sending EU missions to energy facilities for international control.
“Moscow, December 13 - AiF-Moscow.
Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev has recommended that the European Union not respond to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's call to send missions to critical infrastructure facilities.
The Ukrainian leader “wants the Europeans to sit there as a human shield,” as the deaths of the Ukrainian Armed Forces are not enough for him and “he needs fresh blood,” Medvedev suggested.”
The Ukrainian government has to consolidate the international community around the issue of restoring and protecting Ukraine's energy system and strengthening its air defense.
In the spring of 2024, the Russian army resumed shelling energy facilities. The HPP-2 station at DniproHES was put out of commission, Trypillia CHP in Kyiv region and CHP-5 in Kharkiv were destroyed, and Kaniv and Dniester HPPs were attacked. Russians repeatedly targeted the Kyiv HPP.
The Russian army has begun using the tactic of “double strikes”. After waiting for a certain interval, the strike is delivered to the same target. This tactic targets anyone who rescues victims at the site of the strikes and documents war crimes.
New strikes on the energy sector and the introduction of blackout schedules have revived memories of the past winter.
In the spring of 2024, at a meeting with Alexander Lukashenko, the Russian president said who was to blame for Russian troops shelling energy facilities.
"Recently, we have seen a series of attacks on our energy facilities. And we had to respond. I want to emphasize that we did not strike even for humanitarian reasons in winter. But they wanted to leave social institutions, hospitals, and so on (in Russia) without power supply. However, after a series of strikes on our energy facilities, we were forced to respond,” the head of state said at a meeting with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko, as quoted by AiF. ”The strikes on energy facilities are also related to the solution of one of the tasks that the country set for itself for the special operation (SVO) - the demilitarization of Ukraine, Putin continued.
“Why energy sector?
Energy facilities are critical infrastructure objects that allow the production of weapons, so they are a legitimate target of Russian troops, Colonel Levon Arzanov, a member of the presidium of the All-Russian public organization Officers of Russia, explained to aif.
“The entire world practice of modern warfare dictates strikes on critical infrastructure, including energy, railways and highways. Because where there is no electricity, there is no control. Where there is no control, there is chaos. However, our strikes are targeted and selective. In Yugoslavia, the US primarily targeted critical infrastructure. But unlike our Western opponents, we do not carry out carpet bombing, but rather destroy targeted targets, show humanity towards civilians - we destroy only those energy facilities that feed the armed forces and the military-industrial complex. We do not aim to plunge the whole of Ukraine into darkness, into the Stone Age. As the Supreme Commander-in-Chief said, we are not at war with the population, but with the leadership of the Nazi Kyiv regime,” the colonel summarized.”
“It was an honor to work for the New Yorker on the vast scale of Russia's attack on Ukraine's energy sector and civilian infrastructure,” Sasha Maslov wrote on Instagram.
Russian propagandists call the Kursk operation of the Ukrainian Armed Forces one of the reasons for the resumption of shelling of Ukraine's energy sector. They urge not to trust the words of the Ukrainian authorities about the destroyed power system.
The propagandists call it “a targeted campaign by the Kyiv regime to disinform both the Russian military and political leadership and Western partners” in order to intimidate its own people and confuse its partners.
“There's nothing to look for, we have everything in one piece. Intelligence should verify this, and the Russian VKS should make a head check. These banderoles do not hesitate and deliberately hit the Kursk NPP, trying to hit nuclear waste storage facilities. We can no longer tolerate and engage in humanitarianism. It is ideal to give Ukraine a complete blackout. Otherwise, they are now canceling their blackout schedules again.”
The Associated Press gained access to two DTEK power plants in the spring of 2024 after massive shelling of Ukraine's critical infrastructure. Journalists were able to talk to workers and management of the plants and assess the extent of the damage.
“The March 22 attack, which analysts say left 1.9 million people without power, was one of the most intense missile attacks in Russia's spring air campaign against civilian infrastructure.”
“The Kharkiv region, which borders Russia and was hit hardest, is still suffering from power outages weeks later. On Thursday, drones hit the region's Zmiiv power plant, plunging 350,000 people into darkness.
“They're trying to bring us back to the 17th century,” said Sergei, the head of one of the power plants that was attacked.”
The agency writes that Russia has begun to invent new tactics for attacking energy facilities, recognizing that the old strategy of blackouts has failed.
Using the best intelligence available, the Russian army sent “not three drones and two missiles” but “six missiles and up to 15 drones” to the target. DTEK lost 80% of its generating capacity as a result of massive Russian attacks on March 22 and 29.
'If the sky was protected, I would feel calmer,' he said. The energy infrastructure is what everything depends on. If there is no electricity, nothing works: factories do not work. People are without the Internet. You won't even know when missiles are coming at you,” Taras, a power plant worker, told AP.
“These photos can only show a tiny part of the tragedy and heroism of the energy workers who suddenly became a target for Russian missiles, who have to come to work every day with the fear that this day may be their last,” Sasha Maslov wrote on his Instagram under the photo for the New Yorker.
On the eve of the new heating season of 2024-2025, the Russian army attacks Ukrainian territory every night with attack UAVs and ballistic missiles, striking energy facilities, among other things. UAVs are constantly flying to Kharkiv, Sumy, Donetsk, and Zaporizhzhia regions. The Russian military is destroying Kherson with all types of weapons.
How to determine whether a particular energy infrastructure facility is a legitimate military target? And did the destruction of the energy facility provide an undeniable military advantage? After all, energy facilities are often used for military and civilian purposes simultaneously.
Lack of power supply leads to problems with water supply, sewage, and household waste disposal.
The functioning of hospitals, industries and other critical infrastructure facilities depends on these factors.
This type of war crime is more difficult to prosecute than other war crimes, and this is a legal challenge for international courts.
Justice Info, an international justice information website , explains that such cases are difficult because there is no successful legal precedent. It is difficult to determine whether the harm caused to the civilian population is clearly excessive compared to the military advantage.
In an interview with Justice Info, Lidia Volkova, legal advisor at Global Rights Compliance, which cooperates with the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine, noted an important element that she believes judges may pay attention to. This is the fact that the strikes on energy facilities were carried out far from the front line, which was most likely intended to “damage civilian infrastructure, energy distribution and weaken public morale.”
“The ICC judges did conclude that ‘for those objects that could have qualified as military objectives at the relevant time, the expected incidental harm and damage to the civilian population would have been clearly excessive compared to the expected military advantage,’ making these strikes war crimes,” the publication writes.
For the missile strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure carried out by the Russian army between October 2022 and March 2023, the ICC issued arrest warrants for high-ranking Russian commanders Sergei Kobylash and Viktor Sokolov, Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, and former Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.
To bring the Russian army to justice for war crimes, the ICC opened an office in Kyiv in September. The evidence of these crimes is often captured by Ukrainian documentary photographers who, despite the obvious risks to their lives, dare to document.
The material was worked on:
Researcher of the topic, author of the text: Yana Yevmenova
Editor-in-chief: Viacheslav Ratynskyi
Literary editor: Yulia Futey
Website manager: Vladyslav Kukhar
"Taras, a power plant worker, was working in the control room when Russian missiles hit the plant en masse. He had to stay late to complete important tasks when the air raid siren went off and his colleagues ran for their lives.
After the loud explosions, a cloud of smoke rose and darkness fell. Fires broke out, and missile fragments pierced the roof of the huge complex and brought it down on the heads of the workers. Following protocol, Taras closed the coal-fired power plant with a rapid heartbeat,” Associated Press.
The Russian-Ukrainian war is unprecedented in the world, as the energy system has become the target of enemy attacks. The first attacks on energy facilities were launched by the Russian army on the eve of the heating season in October 2022.
“Delivering a speech at a meeting of the Russian Security Council, Vladimir Putin said that the Russian armed forces had launched a massive long-range precision strike on Ukraine's energy, military command and control, and communications facilities,” Argumenty i Fakty reported.
The Russian president called the massive strike “a response to the actions of the Kyiv regime,” recalling “sabotage attacks at the Kursk nuclear power plant and the explosion of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline.”
“For many months, everyone was wondering where the main red line was that separated Russia's harsh reaction from lenient measures. It seems that this line, at least with regard to Ukraine, has been determined - it was the terrorist attack on the Crimean bridge,” AiF writes.
"The United States believes that the Russian Federation planned massive shelling of Ukraine before the explosion on the Kerch Bridge on October 8.
This was stated by the White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby, CNN reports. “This was most likely something they had been planning for quite some time. That doesn't mean that the explosion on the Crimean bridge may have accelerated some of their plans,” Kirby said. He noted that attacks of this magnitude could not have been planned in a few days,"Novynarnyaquoted the White House spokesman as saying.
"A total of 128 attacks were recordedover the past three days. As a result, more than two hundred different objects were damaged, including 28 energy infrastructure facilities,” Ukrinform quoted Shmygal as saying.
Ukrainians have learned to live according to blackout schedules, use gas burners at home, and are used to the noise from generators on the streets.
“It's inspiring to see people doing what they have to do despite the continuous blackouts and power outages after regular Russian missile attacks on the country's power grid,” Sasha Maslov commented on the photo on his Instagram.
During the New Year's holidays, the Russian army intensively shelled Ukraine, and due to the New Year's Eve attack, residents of Zaporizhzhia and the region celebrated the New Year 2023 without electricity.
The massive shelling of critical infrastructure affects the operation of nuclear power plants. After the shelling on November 23, 2022, all four Ukrainian nuclear power plants shut down for less than a day at a time. And the ZNPP, which has been under Russian occupation since the beginning of the war, periodically loses external power and goes into an emergency state.
"According to the UN and the World Bank, Ukraine has lost more than half of its energy capacity in the first 14 months of the war, and the situation continues to deteriorate. Much of the country's solar energy production has also been lost as areas in the south of the country with more sunlight have fallen under Russian occupation,” AP noted.
On December 13, 2022, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev commented on the Ukrainian president's calls for sending EU missions to energy facilities for international control.
“Moscow, December 13 - AiF-Moscow.
Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev has recommended that the European Union not respond to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's call to send missions to critical infrastructure facilities.
The Ukrainian leader “wants the Europeans to sit there as a human shield,” as the deaths of the Ukrainian Armed Forces are not enough for him and “he needs fresh blood,” Medvedev suggested.”
The Ukrainian government has to consolidate the international community around the issue of restoring and protecting Ukraine's energy system and strengthening its air defense.
In the spring of 2024, the Russian army resumed shelling energy facilities. The HPP-2 station at DniproHES was put out of commission, Trypillia CHP in Kyiv region and CHP-5 in Kharkiv were destroyed, and Kaniv and Dniester HPPs were attacked. Russians repeatedly targeted the Kyiv HPP.
The Russian army has begun using the tactic of “double strikes”. After waiting for a certain interval, the strike is delivered to the same target. This tactic targets anyone who rescues victims at the site of the strikes and documents war crimes.
New strikes on the energy sector and the introduction of blackout schedules have revived memories of the past winter.
In the spring of 2024, at a meeting with Alexander Lukashenko, the Russian president said who was to blame for Russian troops shelling energy facilities.
"Recently, we have seen a series of attacks on our energy facilities. And we had to respond. I want to emphasize that we did not strike even for humanitarian reasons in winter. But they wanted to leave social institutions, hospitals, and so on (in Russia) without power supply. However, after a series of strikes on our energy facilities, we were forced to respond,” the head of state said at a meeting with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko, as quoted by AiF. ”The strikes on energy facilities are also related to the solution of one of the tasks that the country set for itself for the special operation (SVO) - the demilitarization of Ukraine, Putin continued.
“Why energy sector?
Energy facilities are critical infrastructure objects that allow the production of weapons, so they are a legitimate target of Russian troops, Colonel Levon Arzanov, a member of the presidium of the All-Russian public organization Officers of Russia, explained to aif.
“The entire world practice of modern warfare dictates strikes on critical infrastructure, including energy, railways and highways. Because where there is no electricity, there is no control. Where there is no control, there is chaos. However, our strikes are targeted and selective. In Yugoslavia, the US primarily targeted critical infrastructure. But unlike our Western opponents, we do not carry out carpet bombing, but rather destroy targeted targets, show humanity towards civilians - we destroy only those energy facilities that feed the armed forces and the military-industrial complex. We do not aim to plunge the whole of Ukraine into darkness, into the Stone Age. As the Supreme Commander-in-Chief said, we are not at war with the population, but with the leadership of the Nazi Kyiv regime,” the colonel summarized.”
“It was an honor to work for the New Yorker on the vast scale of Russia's attack on Ukraine's energy sector and civilian infrastructure,” Sasha Maslov wrote on Instagram.
Russian propagandists call the Kursk operation of the Ukrainian Armed Forces one of the reasons for the resumption of shelling of Ukraine's energy sector. They urge not to trust the words of the Ukrainian authorities about the destroyed power system.
The propagandists call it “a targeted campaign by the Kyiv regime to disinform both the Russian military and political leadership and Western partners” in order to intimidate its own people and confuse its partners.
“There's nothing to look for, we have everything in one piece. Intelligence should verify this, and the Russian VKS should make a head check. These banderoles do not hesitate and deliberately hit the Kursk NPP, trying to hit nuclear waste storage facilities. We can no longer tolerate and engage in humanitarianism. It is ideal to give Ukraine a complete blackout. Otherwise, they are now canceling their blackout schedules again.”
The Associated Press gained access to two DTEK power plants in the spring of 2024 after massive shelling of Ukraine's critical infrastructure. Journalists were able to talk to workers and management of the plants and assess the extent of the damage.
“The March 22 attack, which analysts say left 1.9 million people without power, was one of the most intense missile attacks in Russia's spring air campaign against civilian infrastructure.”
“The Kharkiv region, which borders Russia and was hit hardest, is still suffering from power outages weeks later. On Thursday, drones hit the region's Zmiiv power plant, plunging 350,000 people into darkness.
“They're trying to bring us back to the 17th century,” said Sergei, the head of one of the power plants that was attacked.”
The agency writes that Russia has begun to invent new tactics for attacking energy facilities, recognizing that the old strategy of blackouts has failed.
Using the best intelligence available, the Russian army sent “not three drones and two missiles” but “six missiles and up to 15 drones” to the target. DTEK lost 80% of its generating capacity as a result of massive Russian attacks on March 22 and 29.
'If the sky was protected, I would feel calmer,' he said. The energy infrastructure is what everything depends on. If there is no electricity, nothing works: factories do not work. People are without the Internet. You won't even know when missiles are coming at you,” Taras, a power plant worker, told AP.
“These photos can only show a tiny part of the tragedy and heroism of the energy workers who suddenly became a target for Russian missiles, who have to come to work every day with the fear that this day may be their last,” Sasha Maslov wrote on his Instagram under the photo for the New Yorker.
On the eve of the new heating season of 2024-2025, the Russian army attacks Ukrainian territory every night with attack UAVs and ballistic missiles, striking energy facilities, among other things. UAVs are constantly flying to Kharkiv, Sumy, Donetsk, and Zaporizhzhia regions. The Russian military is destroying Kherson with all types of weapons.
How to determine whether a particular energy infrastructure facility is a legitimate military target? And did the destruction of the energy facility provide an undeniable military advantage? After all, energy facilities are often used for military and civilian purposes simultaneously.
Lack of power supply leads to problems with water supply, sewage, and household waste disposal.
The functioning of hospitals, industries and other critical infrastructure facilities depends on these factors.
This type of war crime is more difficult to prosecute than other war crimes, and this is a legal challenge for international courts.
Justice Info, an international justice information website , explains that such cases are difficult because there is no successful legal precedent. It is difficult to determine whether the harm caused to the civilian population is clearly excessive compared to the military advantage.
In an interview with Justice Info, Lidia Volkova, legal advisor at Global Rights Compliance, which cooperates with the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine, noted an important element that she believes judges may pay attention to. This is the fact that the strikes on energy facilities were carried out far from the front line, which was most likely intended to “damage civilian infrastructure, energy distribution and weaken public morale.”
“The ICC judges did conclude that ‘for those objects that could have qualified as military objectives at the relevant time, the expected incidental harm and damage to the civilian population would have been clearly excessive compared to the expected military advantage,’ making these strikes war crimes,” the publication writes.
For the missile strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure carried out by the Russian army between October 2022 and March 2023, the ICC issued arrest warrants for high-ranking Russian commanders Sergei Kobylash and Viktor Sokolov, Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, and former Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.
To bring the Russian army to justice for war crimes, the ICC opened an office in Kyiv in September. The evidence of these crimes is often captured by Ukrainian documentary photographers who, despite the obvious risks to their lives, dare to document.
The material was worked on:
Researcher of the topic, author of the text: Yana Yevmenova
Editor-in-chief: Viacheslav Ratynskyi
Literary editor: Yulia Futey
Website manager: Vladyslav Kukhar
UAPP is an independent association of professional Ukrainian photographers, designed to protect their interests, support, develop and promote Ukrainian photography as an important element of national culture.
UAPP's activities span educational, social, research and cultural initiatives, as well as book publishing.
UAPP represents Ukrainian professional photography in the international photographic community and is an official member of the Federation of European Photographers (FEP) — an international organization representing more than 50,000 professional photographers in Europe and other countries around the world.
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