Communal central heating means Moscow can plunge entire neighbourhoods into cold with a single strike
M
any Ukrainians are without heating in sub-zero temperatures as a result of relentless Russian strikes on energy infrastructure, while the country suffers through its coldest winter of the war so far.
Ukraine is especially vulnerable to such attacks, as Moscow can exploit a widespread Soviet-era heat system in which multiple apartment blocks rely on communal central heating.
Under this system, water is heated at a huge main power plant and then is pumped via pipes to residential blocks, where it is distributed into radiators and taps. That means that with a single strike on a heating plant, Moscow can wipe out heating for whole neighbourhoods.
