Russia targets Ukraine's unified energy grid, expert says

Russian forces are persistently attempting to split Ukraine's unified energy system, according to Volodymyr Omelchenko, director of energy programs at the Razumkov Centre, in an interview with Radio NV. Omelchenko stated that Russians are trying to cut off the Kyiv, Dnipro, and Odesa regions from the power grid and divide the entire system into western and eastern parts by striking substations and power line crossings over the Dnipro River. He noted that despite high blackout risks since 2022, outages have been avoided due to engineers' work, including over 220 second-level protective structures built by Ukrenergo. On November 2, Deputy Energy Minister Artem Nekrasov reported 94 Russian attacks on Ukraine's energy and oil-gas sector in the past week, causing 208 incidents. Since September, over 800 pieces of energy equipment have been damaged from more than 350 strikes, according to Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal.