\n\n“The scale of the destruction makes quick repairs impossible. Replacement parts are not often readily available. Energy infrastructure also remains vulnerable:A lot of it is big and out in the open; once hit by a missile and fixed, it can be hit again. \u201cIt\u2019s not possible to repair quickly after it\u2019s been damaged,\u201d said Volodymyr Shulmeister, founder of the Infrastructure Council NGO and former first deputy minister of infrastructure of Ukraine from 2014 to 2015. \u201cThere were some spare parts, some electric power stations has been repaired, but there will be new problems coming from the air.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That is on top of all the other destruction Ukraine accumulated in months and months of war: houses and apartment buildings, bridges, roads, railways. There is always collateral damage in conflict, but Russia\u2019s attacks on non-military critical and energy infrastructure are intentional. \u201cThis is not a new tactic for Russia,\u201d said John Spencer, a retired Army officer and chair of urban warfare studies at the Madison Policy Forum. \u201cIf you think about what they did in Chechnya, and in Syria, to basically bring the civilian population to such despair that they\u2019re willing to capitulate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Moscow\u2019s targeting of infrastructure, which some have argued amounts to war crimes<\/a>, is an effort to undermine Ukraine\u2019s economy and deprive people of essential services \u2014 heat, water, electricity \u2014 as winter approaches. Russia is struggling against Ukraine\u2019s counteroffensive in the east and south, and so Moscow is trying to extend the war and spread out that pain across Ukraine, not just in war zones. All of it will make Ukraine even more reliant on aid from the West, which is dealing with its own inflation and energy crises. \u201cRussians are actually now acting very cruel, but also in a very well-thought-through way,\u201d said Andriy Kobolyev, former chief executive officer of Ukraine\u2019s largest national oil and gas company Naftogaz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In areas closer to the fighting, the infrastructure destruction is even more extreme, but also harder to fully assess. Zelenskyy accused<\/a> Russian troops of destroying \u201call the critical infrastructure: communications, water, heat, electricity,\u201d before retreating from Kherson<\/a> last week. In Mykolaiv, in southern Ukraine, Russia cut off the city\u2019s water supply<\/a> months ago; salt water had run through the taps<\/a> for months, and potable wateris now just being restored<\/a>. Zelenskyy said in early November, before the latest round of air strikes, that Russian attacks damaged about 40 percent<\/a> of Ukraine\u2019s energy infrastructure; precise data on how badly and where is hard to get, in part because Ukraine is closely guarding that information as a matter of national security.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n