Russia leaves more than a million residents of Kharkiv without electricity or water

Six hours is the average time that Kharkiv's 1.3 million residents are without electricity each day. In the last two weeks, Russia has destroyed a thermal power plant, damaged another and hit all the electrical substations in Ukraine's second largest city. The population suffers from power outages and in many cases from water supply (pumping also requires electricity). Kharkiv has borne the brunt of the Kremlin's ongoing offensive against the Ukrainian energy sector.

It is the second Russian campaign against the Ukrainian power grid in the more than two years of large-scale invasion. The first, between October 2022 and January 2023, left millions of Ukrainians for months without electricity, water, heating or mobile phone connection. Those bombings against the energy system, considered by the European Commission as a war crime, accelerated the delivery to Ukraine by its allies of the best Western air defense systems. These include the American Patriot, the German Iris-T, and the Norwegian Nasams.

Military aid to Ukraine is declining, especially from the United States. The more than 50 billion euros that President Joe Biden brought to Congress in 2023 to be approved for military assistance to kyiv remain blocked by the Republican Party. The consequences are noticeable on the war front, but also in the lack of anti-aircraft defenses: if the Ukrainian Air Force intercepted 80% of Russian missiles in 2023, this percentage has fallen to 60% in 2024.

“If we had enough air defense systems, specifically the Patriot, we could protect not only the lives of our people, but also our economy,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba reiterated last week in Political. “The Patriots must defend Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia,” said the president, Volodymyr Zelensky, on March 22, “the anti-aircraft guns are necessary to protect people, infrastructure, homes and dams. “Russian missiles are not delayed, as are aid packages for our State.”

“Kharkov has a problem with anti-aircraft defenses because this is not kyiv,” explains Alexei, a mechanic who works near the Zmiivka thermal power plant, bombed on March 22, critically. It is true that the Ukrainian capital is the best protected place in the country, but Kharkiv is especially vulnerable due to its proximity to Russia: enemy territory is only 40 kilometers away. The anti-aircraft batteries barely have time to intercept the Russian missiles. Alexei adds that not everything is negative because regarding the winter of 2022 they are more prepared for adversity. He, for example, has since then had a diesel generator in the garage with electrical wiring to his apartment.

But the problem is not just about missile defenses, Alexander Shilin, a veteran military officer serving in the Kharkiv region, said Wednesday. The provincial capital also has a deficit of anti-aircraft machine guns to shoot down enemy drones, according to Shilin.

Lower efficiency

Russia bombed the city early this Thursday with several waves of drone bombs. EL PAÍS heard at least four unmanned vehicles that were able to cross the urban center for long minutes without being shot down first on their path from Russian territory. The attack caused at least four deaths and 12 injuries. 350,000 people completely lost their electricity supply across the province as a result of this attack, according to the Ministry of Energy. The Air Force reported that it intercepted 11 of 20 drones, an effectiveness rate of 50%. Until now, the average in the country had been 90%.

Andrii is 35 years old and lives on the outskirts of the city, in a Soviet apartment block from the 1970s. From eight in the morning until four in the afternoon he has no electricity, the mobile connection comes and goes and depending on the day, he has no water. He can no longer take the trolleybus that took him closer to his job because the electricity supply to this public transport has stopped working. But he confirms that the inhabitants are better prepared: in the city there are more public points to recharge telephone or computer batteries, he says, and he has more equipment at home for an emergency situation: a light bulb that recharges during the day with solar energy, lamps that connect to external batteries via USB cables and even a 30-liter water tank that is always full, whether for washing dishes or for minimal personal hygiene.

Not everyone is so positive. Marina Stoliarchuk, a public official, has the feeling that the moment is worse than in those months of 2022 and 2023. She concedes that it is not winter and spring makes the situation more bearable, but she has not only been left without electricity for six hours a day, he also says he has less courage to resist the bombings, which are daily. Nina Mishina, another woman who lives near the Zmiivka plant, confirms that a significant number of her neighbors have left the city again.

Rumors and propaganda

Other people consulted have not detected people leaving their homes. Russian propaganda has reported a mass flight of the population of Kharkiv. Its mayor, Igor Terejov, had to deny in the media on April 1 that the city was going to be evacuated: “In Kharkiv we have 1.3 million inhabitants and neither the army nor we see reasons for an evacuation. “This is part of Russian psychological operations to intimidate and create nerves among citizens.” This newspaper has been able to confirm that this exodus is not taking place.

Kharkiv is abuzz with rumors, mostly from Russian sources, about a possible offensive on the city. The bombings against their energy system have increased paranoia. Neither NATO intelligence nor the Armed Forces have detected a concentration of Russian troops that indicates that a lightning operation on Kharkov is possible. The National Security Council of Ukraine issued a statement on March 28 precisely to deny the rumors: “Russia does not have the resources to launch an offensive on Kharkiv. All their fables about being ready to surround the city are part of a fear propaganda campaign,” said Andrii Kovalenko, head of the Center for Combating Disinformation – an organization that is part of the National Security Council.

Andrii Yusov, spokesman for the Intelligence Services of the Ministry of Defense, insisted this Wednesday that the possible offensive on Kharkiv is Russian psychological warfare. The commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces, Oleksandr Sirski, did note in an interview on March 29 that a future Russian attempt to occupy Ukraine's second largest city could not be ruled out. Sirkis said that for the invader it would be a “fatal mistake.”

Ukraine, Zelensky explained, has reacted to the Kremlin's campaign against the energy sector by launching its own offensive against the Russian oil industry. 16 oil refineries have been attacked by Ukrainian drone bombs. The US has asked kyiv to stop these operations due to the risk that they will cause a global increase in fuel prices. However, the president stated last week in Washington Post that “it is fair” that Russian society also suffers from energy limitations. Zelensky responded again this Wednesday to American criticism: “There are people who, to understand the situation well, before criticizing or not, should come to Kharkiv and see how people survive without electricity, without water. “Russia understands nothing except force.”

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