Russia attacks only those Ukrainian energy facilities that supply military targets, according to a false narrative promoted by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
NEWS: The Armed Forces of Russia are bombing only the energy infrastructure of Ukraine that ensures the operation of the Ukrainian troops, said the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Sergey Lavrov, during a meeting with the heads of diplomatic missions, devoted to developments in Ukraine.
He recalled that, during a meeting of the working group on energy security in Bürgenstock held in late August, Western states called on Russia “not to attack the energy infrastructure of Ukraine”. “Regarding this request, I want to mention that our armed forces are bombing only those energy infrastructure objectives that ensure the operation of Ukrainian troops on the frontline or on the territory of the Russian Federation, I refer to the Kursk region first and foremost”.
NARRATIVE: The Russian army is not attacking the entire Ukrainian energy infrastructure, but only those facilities that supply power to Kyiv’s frontline troops.
PURPOSE: To justify attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure targets and the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Fact: The Russian army systematically attacks Ukraine’s civilian energy infrastructure
WHY THE NARRATIVE IS FALSE: Since the start of the war, Russia has consistently attacked Ukrainian civilian infrastructure, especially the energy infrastructure, the latter being the target of several intense shelling campaigns, especially around the cold season. As a direct consequence of Russian shelling targeting civilian energy infrastructure, millions of Ukrainian civilians were kept in the cold and in the dark during the two winters of the war over long periods of time. Electricity supply has been and continues to be a problem in Ukraine outside the cold season, so power outages have been commonplace in many settlements for over two and a half years. For many Ukrainians, power cuts have become part of everyday life.
Russia has attacked energy infrastructure objectives in all Ukrainian regions, including in the western oblasts – Lviv, Khmelnytskyi, Chernivtsi and Lutsk. Energy installations located about a thousand kilometers from the frontlines or the Kursk region were destroyed. According to Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, the region is seeing heavy fighting, with the Ukrainian Armed Forces being deployed to this area in large numbers.
For example, in March, the Russian army targeted Ukrainian thermal and hydropower plants. 80% of which were destroyed, according to the president of Ukraine. Hundreds of civilians were killed in these attacks.
In August 2024, Russia bombed the Dnieper dam in the Kyiv region. If this dam had been totally or partially destroyed, a number of towns in the Kyiv region, as well as some districts in the capital-city, would have been flooded. The aim of these systematic attacks is not to disrupt the power supply of military targets near the front, but to make the Ukrainian state no longer functional and to increase the war fatigue of the population.
The international human rights organization Amnesty International has criticized the attacks on energy targets, stating that such operations represent war crimes. According to economic studies, Russia's attacks are generating serious economic problems, new waves of Westward emigration and are compounding social unrest, being an element of hybrid warfare.
BACKGROUND: Since the spring of 2024, Russia has resumed attacks on power installations in the context of the shortage of missiles facing the Ukrainian air defenses. Earlier this year, president Vladimir Putin said Russia was “forced” to launch strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure in response to Kyiv’s attacks on Russian targets. The false narrative overlooks the general context and history of the military confrontations over the past two and a half years. During the peace summit in Bürgenstock (Switzerland), the international community discussed energy security in eastern as one of its top priorities in the context of requests that Russia should stop bombing Ukrainian power facilities.
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