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Report
Why is Russia focusing on Ukraine's energy infrastructure?
FRANCE 24 English
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8/27/2024
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00:00
Well, also covering this story is our foreign editor Ketivan Gorgiastani. She's with me in the studio now.
00:05
Ketivan, just tell us a bit about why Russia is apparently once again focusing on Ukraine's energy infrastructure
00:12
and why it's such a problem for Ukraine.
00:14
Well, because we're at the end of the summer, which means that soon enough it's going to start getting cold in Ukraine.
00:22
And the United States had these two words. They called it the classic move from the Kremlin,
00:31
which is, of course, targeting that energy infrastructure ahead of the winter to make things even harder for the Ukrainians.
00:39
And the Russians are not hiding from it. They are saying, yes, we are targeting that energy infrastructure.
00:45
That is what we're going after.
00:47
And you saw the Americans reacting to that yesterday, putting out a statement saying that
00:54
Washington was surging its energy equipment to Ukraine to repair what Russia has damaged
01:00
and to strengthen the resilience of Ukraine's energy grid.
01:04
But this is something that the Russians have been doing ever since the start of the war.
01:12
And yes, it is, as we saw in that report, a really big problem for the Ukrainians because they have to play catch up.
01:20
They have to go and figure out whether they can save part of these energy plant, repair it in time for the winter.
01:30
But at the same time, you could also argue that even though Russia has been targeting that infrastructure for more than two years,
01:38
so far, at least, the Ukrainians have managed to sort of keep the country at bay, if you will,
01:45
whether it is because they're very good and fast at repairing because of the help of the allies and their resilience,
01:53
whether it is because the Russians, even though they are targeting that infrastructure,
01:59
they're not doing it efficiently enough.
02:02
But at least for now, they've managed to, yes, have rolling blackouts, yes, have problems with water, gas, electricity.
02:10
But overall, they have managed to keep the country going even deep into the winter.
02:16
And that is what they are hoping is going to happen again this coming winter.
02:20
Well, let's talk a bit about President Zelensky, the Ukrainian leader, because he's been appealing to the West
02:26
to greenlight the use of long-range weapons deeper inside Russian territory.
02:31
Let's take a listen to the President.
02:37
Each of these strikes repeatedly brings us back to the task of long-range capabilities,
02:42
the need to provide our defence forces with enough long-range weapons that can destroy terrorists exactly in the areas of their strikes.
02:51
This is the optimal counter-terrorism tactic, one that every partner of ours has the right to
02:58
and would undoubtedly use to protect themselves.
03:01
And we expect decisions from them, decisions on our long-range capabilities.
03:06
So, Ketivan, Zelensky wants to be allowed to use Western weapons in Russia, deeper inside Russia.
03:13
What's the Western response to that?
03:16
Well, there has been at least a response from the White House on record
03:21
saying that Washington has no changes to its policy about how its weapons can be used in Ukraine.
03:30
And the policy right now when it comes to those missiles is basically
03:34
you can target within Russian territory, but keep it close to the border,
03:39
basically in a sort of self-defence move of targeting areas or locations where the fire is coming from.
03:49
But they have sort of put a red line to targeting deeper within Russian territory,
03:56
which is what Zelensky is asking for.
03:59
But you have to go back to the start of the war to sort of understand what is at play here,
04:05
because this is not the first time that the US or other allies, for that matter, have said,
04:10
no, you cannot do this, and then a few months later decided to go back on that
04:16
and say, actually, here's the green light.
04:18
They did that for just in general offensive weapons at the beginning of the war.
04:24
They did that with tanks. They did that with the F-16s.
04:28
And now they're also moving on the Russian territory part
04:31
because initially there was a sort of red line on even targeting just on the other side of the border,
04:38
and now you're seeing that move.
04:40
So the question is, is this one of those red lines that is going to be moved back again in a couple of weeks,
04:46
a couple of months, because there is pressure.
04:48
Zelensky, of course, is pushing for it, but also allies are not necessarily agreeing amongst each other,
04:55
because, for example, the British and the French seem to be a little bit more open
05:01
to the idea of going a little bit deeper within Russia to target military infrastructure.
05:07
The Americans and the Germans seem to be really reluctant to do that.
05:12
And over these past two years, the basic response and the reasoning for why to put all those red lines in the first place was
05:21
we do not want to escalate this war.
05:23
We do not want to give Russia a reason to possibly retaliate against allies,
05:28
which so far the Russians haven't actually done every time those lines have been crossed,
05:33
which is the argument of the Ukrainians.
05:36
But in the meantime, while the allies decide whether or not to do that,
05:40
the Ukrainians are moving along because they just announced that they had tested successfully
05:46
a first ballistic missile, a homemade ballistic missile,
05:50
and that just after last week announcing a missile drone that was a long-range missile drone.
05:57
So, the idea is possibly to start building it at home so that they don't need the green light of the allies.
06:03
Fascinating. Thanks very much, Ketavan Gordjastani, for us there.
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