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Russia Attacked Ukraine's Power Grid at Least 66 Times to ‘Freeze It Into Submission’

Several of the strikes occurred far from the front lines of the conflict, indicating possible war crimes. Researchers say the attacks likely had devastating impacts on civilians.

During the first winter of the conflict, Russia pursued a strategy that US secretary of state Antony Blinken described as trying to “freeze [Ukraine] into submission” by attacking its power infrastructure, shutting citizens off from heat and electricity. “What we see here is that there was a pattern of bombardment that hit front lines and non-frontline areas, at a scale that must have had civilian effect,” says Nathaniel Raymond, a coleader of the Humanitarian Research Lab and lecturer at Yale’s Jackson School of Global Affairs. In October 2022, during the same time period covered by the report, hackers from Russia’s GRU military intelligence unit known as Sandworm plunged an unknown number of Ukrainian civilians into a blackout during a missile strike.

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