section_path: Battlespaces/Missile attacks and aerial warfare/Russian attacks against Ukrainian civilian infrastructure
section_name: Russian attacks against Ukrainian civilian infrastructure
paragraph_text: Russian attacks against Ukrainian civilian infrastructure
  
  Since 2022, Russia has carried out strikes on Ukrainian electrical and water systems. On 6 October 2022 the Ukrainian military reported that 86 Shahed 136 kamikaze drones had been launched by Russian forces, and between 30 September and 6 October Ukrainian forces had destroyed 24 out of 46 launched. On 8 October, it was announced that General of the Army Sergey Surovikin would be commanding all Russian forces on the strength of his novel air assault technique. On 16 October, The Washington Post reported that Iran was planning to supply Russia with drones and missiles. On 18 October the US State Department accused Iran of violating Resolution 2231 by selling Shahed 131 and Shahed 136 drones to Russia, agreeing with France and the UK. Iran denied sending arms for the Ukraine war. On 22 October France, Britain and Germany formally called for a UN investigation. On 1 November, CNN reported that Iran was preparing to send ballistic missiles and other weapons to Russia for use in Ukraine.
  
  On 15 November, Russia fired 85 missiles at the Ukrainian power grid, causing power outages in Kyiv and neighboring regions. In March 2023, The New York Times reported that Russia had used new hypersonic missiles in a massive missile attack on Ukraine. Such missiles are more effective in evading conventional Ukrainian anti-missile defences that had previously proved useful against Russia's conventional, non-hypersonic missile systems.
  
  The UK Defense Ministry said strikes against Ukrainian infrastructure are part of Russia's 'Strategic Operation for the Destruction of Critically Important Targets' (SODCIT) military doctrine, intended to demoralise the population and force the Ukrainian leadership to capitulate. According to the Royal United Services Institute:
  
  Russian strikes had cumulatively destroyed 9 gigawatts (GW) of Ukraine's domestic power generation by mid-June 2024. Peak consumption during the winter of 2023 was 18 GW, which means that half of Ukraine's production capacity has been destroyed.
  
  On 8 July 2024, Russia used a Kh-101 missile to kill two people and injure 16 at the Okhmatdyt Children's Hospital in Kyiv. At least 20 civilians were killed in Kyiv that night.