Keeping the Lights On: The Battle for the Ukrainian Grid
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Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Ukrainian grid became the target of Russian missile attacks. In October 2022 Russia began a concerted bombing campaign of Ukraine electrical distribution infrastructure which resulted loss of electricity to large number of Ukrainian consumers and at least one major nation-wide blackouts on November 23, 2022. In spring 2024, Russia renewed its attack on the grid and in several massive barrages damaged upward of 80 percent of thermal and hydro power generating facilities. How has Ukraine been able to keep the lights in the face of Russian malice? What does the immediate and long-term future hold for the Ukrainian grid? How do developments in Ukraine affect European energy security and Europe’s grid? And what are the lessons for national electrical grids and their operators worldwide from the war in Ukraine?
Event Sponsors
Speakers
Moderator
Senior Research Associate, Project on Managing the Atom at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center
Hosted By
Global Europe Program
The Global Europe Program is focused on Europe’s capabilities, and how it engages on critical global issues. We investigate European approaches to critical global issues. We examine Europe’s relations with Russia and Eurasia, China and the Indo-Pacific, the Middle East and Africa. Our initiatives include “Ukraine in Europe”—an examination of what it will take to make Ukraine’s European future a reality. But we also examine the role of NATO, the European Union and the OSCE, Europe’s energy security, transatlantic trade disputes, and challenges to democracy. The Global Europe Program’s staff, scholars-in-residence, and Global Fellows participate in seminars, policy study groups, and international conferences to provide analytical recommendations to policy makers and the media. Read more
Kennan Institute
The Kennan Institute is the premier US center for advanced research on Eurasia and the oldest and largest regional program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. The Kennan Institute is committed to improving American understanding of Russia, Ukraine, Central Asia, the South Caucasus, and the surrounding region though research and exchange. Read more