Kremlin justifies attacks on Ukraine’s power grid

Moscow: The Kremlin has argued that attacks on energy facilities in Ukraine are justified as they are partly aimed at disrupting electricity supplies to military facilities.

“Naturally, this (power grid) is associated with military infrastructure in specific cases,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday, according to Russian news agencies. He had been asked whether he considered Ukraine’s energy supply system to be a legal military target.

Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than two years ago and, since then, has regularly and systematically attacked the neighbouring country’s energy supply systems.

The Russian military has been targeting thermal and hydroelectric power plants in Ukraine since March. According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, 80 per cent of thermal power plants and around a third of hydropower plants have been destroyed. The human rights organisation Amnesty International has criticised the attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure as a war crime.

Ukraine says it last lost more than 9 gigawatts of power-plant capacity across the country due to missile and drone attacks following the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022. The base load of Ukraine’s power generation is ensured by the three nuclear power plants that are still under government control. Up to 1.7 gigawatts of additional power can be imported from neighbouring EU states and Moldova. For most Ukrainians, however, power cuts lasting several hours are now part of everyday life. (IANS)

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