Why is Russia attacking Ukraine's energy infrastructure? | Ukraine: The Latest | Podcast

Day 237. Today, we discuss the latest strikes on the Ukrainian capital, discuss the delicate diplomatic relationship between Russia and Israel and ask why Russia is attacking Ukrainian energy infrastructure.

Contributors:

David Knowles (Host). Follow David on Twitter @djknowles22.

Francis Dearnley (Assistant Comment Editor). Follow Francis on Twitter @FrancisDearnley.

James Rothwell (Middle East Editor ). Follow James on Twitter @JamesERothwell

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[terranrepublic]

What kind of war is this when they can hit whatever they want on your turf but everything on their side is off limits?

[sumiland]

I hope "we" (USA, NATO, EU, allies) are distributing all winter supplies for heat, shelter, cooking, clothing, food, water etc to all Ukraine 🇺🇦 🌎 🇺🇸

[timtrewyn]

Early in the conflict I had a conversation with Ukrainian electric utility personnel. They were quite impressive as to thinking of creative ways to keep serving electricity. They always had connections with European suppliers and Ukrainian suppliers of the materials they need to maintain their systems. They understood the necessity of improving the security of their own manufacturing capabilities. They have already demonstrated this creativity in keeping electricity available as long as they have. They understood that they should reach out to the US Department of Energy, but more importantly the energy departments of their European partners. When the time comes to start restoring or putting up new buildings, I think the electricity needed to help with that is going to be there. We agreed we should not publicly talk about these creative methods in the interest of denying the Russians tactical insight, although Russian electric utility personnel are also quite capable.

[Pete]

Always great info and interesting to listen to. A great fan of this channel.

[hsanguily]

That noise hurts .
Podcast is great, as usual.

[niklaswikholm]

Quality content as allways! Big thanks for your work.
Greetings Niklas from Finland

[stephenwheater]

Great pod cast with consistently rare insight. I am surprised it doesn’t get more hits.

[CEngelbrecht]

"A lot of Israelis are of Russian origin."
A lot of them were German last time.

[orctowngrot]

Yes, i really wanted to listen to a power drill for 15 minutes.

[jeremymueller]

It's very odd to hear these Russians strikes characterized as "simply attacking civilian infrastructure for its own sake, OR just because they like commiting war crimes, etc" without mentioning that there is a military goal to paralyze Ukrainian war logistics because the trains there run on electricity. It might not just be lashing out in retaliation because of their military failures, even if that's part of it. "Omg war crimes" just seems like an almost propagandistic oversimplification, especially in light of allied WW2 strategic bombing practices. Long time ago but people remember.

[EhEhEhEINSTEIN]

How difficult would it be to cut Russia off from the internet?

[Deveron]

Love the podcast but please please PLEASE give James Rothwell a kick in the arse for the background noise. Great reporting is one thing, but I don't want bleeding ears because of it.

[stephenjenkins]

Just wanted to says thxs. I live in Sweden and honest, objective reports are hard to find.

[mikestrange]

To create fear and discontent ... they will fail!

[ronaldhunt]

Do as they did in the ww 2 by hanging balloons with cables and nets (fishing nets) that stretched around vital power stations. Somebody must be able to look it up, as how to accomplish this task .

[johnjon]

I recall from Seinfeld the subway scene where Kramer is playing Risk, don't mess with Ukraine.

[scottybot]

The audio is rougher than a saturday night kebab on a sunday morning. too much white noise, hard to listen to what typically is quality content.

[Lyingleyen]

Why is Russia attacking Ukraine's energy infrastructure?? Ask the British military intelligence and the Pentagon why they attacked Iraq's energy infrastructure back in the Iraq War.

[annuki]

Electric trains in Ukraine are electric and important for troop movements

[TooBadToBeAway]

I'm really frustrated with westerb keaders They always react to Russia, and often very late, whether it's with HIMARs, or maintaining the difference between defensive and offensive weapons, and now with Russia attacking critical infrastructure. This could have been easily foreseen, especially after the Kerch bridge was attacked. Heck, propagandists on Russian TV were announcing the destruction of critical infrastructure. Now, do we have to wait for the next Ramstein meeting before a solution or response to this can be discussed? We know that Putin responds to a crisis with escalation, unless the western response is strong enough that he bacs off. Stop congratulation yourselves that 'the west won last March', and start doing something proactive. Ukraine has seized the initiative on the battlefield, why can't the west?