The latest wave of Russian strikes on energy infrastructure aimed at targets across the country on Monday came on one of the coldest days of the year in Ukraine — which Ukrainian officials said would have ripple effects like causing pipes to burst and heating systems to fail.

Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, the head of Ukrenergo, Ukraine’s national energy company, said the strikes’ targets suggested that Russia was aiming to cause a blackout of the country’s energy system and cause as much suffering as possible, as highs hovered around -6 Celsius.

“I don’t doubt that the military consulted with Russian power engineers,” he said.

Ukrainian air defence systems shot down 60 of 70 missiles fired at infrastructure targets on Monday, according to the military, sparing the country the direst consequences of the assault.

Ten missiles did strike electrical power plants and substations, according to energy officials, compounding damage from previous waves of missile assaults on infrastructure.

“There will be a deficit in the energy system in the next few days,” Kudrytskyi said.

“A day or two are needed to restore electricity generation in the system. After that, the situation is expected to stabilise.”

Until that repair work can be done again, the national utility said that emergency shutdowns would be needed.

New York Times News Service