The Russia-Ukraine war is now nearing an 8th-month mark and each occurrence is more destructive as Russia has begun a targeted attack against Ukraine's thermal capacity in the hopes of crippling the nation. It's been estimated that Russian air attacks have caused damage to at least half of the nation's capacity, losing about 4000MW in capacity this week alone to strikes.
Image of firefighters trying to put out a fire caused by missiles to a thermal plant
image source
This has resulted in losses summing up to billions of dollars. Ukraine happens to be a very cold country having lows down to -20 degrees during winter. It also experiences really long, cold winters hence the need for a functional energy system before winter begins. Quite a lot of the power-generating capacity is gone already and it seems Ukraine would need electricity imports to survive the winter after losing more than 30% of its capacity.
Russia claims this attack is payback for Ukraine's bridge attack to annex Crimea and slowly, Ukraine is made to suffer for this. The attacks are not without casualties, they have led to the loss of lives of five workers and dealt serious injuries to eleven others. Amidst all the attacks, the minister still claims that the energy system is still stable, however, I see this as merely a show of strength, a bluff. With such targeted attacks, there is more damage than has been reported, and the citizens and those who were unable to flee the country are made to suffer for this.