The terror associated with war has evolved drastically over the last few centuries. Until the 20th century, armies faced each other on battlefields, and terror against civilians was limited to looting by victors in occupied territories.
The Great War (1914–1918) was fought in the trenches. However, the famous “Pariskanone,” firing from 120 km away, sowed panic in Paris between March and July 1918. Despite the psychological impact, the death toll was only 250 civilians due to the weapon’s poor ballistic precision.
In World War II, terror arrived from the air. Bombers, which initially targeted military installations or strategic infrastructure (bridges, railways, industries), eventually began to deliberately terrorize the civilian population to undermine morale and accelerate surrender. Toward the end of the conflict, German long-range V2 missiles—pioneers of the space race—randomly punished London neighborhoods, while Allied aviation leveled entire cities, causing thousands of casualties and destroying ancient artistic treasures.
In current wars, the use of drones and long-range, high-precision missiles allows for the selection of specific targets: an enemy leader, a military installation, or civilian infrastructure with a high impact on the population. Specifically, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, while the land front has remained stagnant for four years, the energy sector has become the preferred target for both sides.
The Strategy of “Energy Terror”
Russia has executed systematic campaigns to destroy Ukraine’s power grid under a strategy of “energy terror.” According to data from the International Atomic Energy Agency, more than 60,000 energy facilities have been destroyed or damaged since the beginning of the invasion, with increasing intensity between 2024 and 2026. Among the plants put out of service, the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (the largest in Europe) stands out, as well as most thermal and hydroelectric plants. Putin’s goal is to break the civilian population by depriving them of light, heating, water, and power for industry during harsh winters, when temperatures drop to -20°C. Currently, blackouts are a daily occurrence in Ukraine, resulting in a humanitarian crisis that primarily affects children, the elderly, schools, and hospitals.
Ukraine’s response has been equally forceful but focused on economic suffocation. Using waves of long-range drones, Kyiv has struck the oil infrastructure that finances the Russian war machine and the Russian army’s supply centers: refineries, gas and oil terminals, electrical infrastructure in border regions, and even ships and oil platforms in the Black Sea. This offensive has managed to reduce Russian oil production by 30%, serving as the main factor behind the astronomical $72 billion deficit in 2025, aggravated by inflation and Western sanctions.
In our own neighborhood, we see today how the Cuban population—primarily the most vulnerable—suffers another form of energy terror, the result of the embargo imposed by the US and the failure of its own regime.
Following the Great War, the world moved to outlaw the use of lethal gases. In the face of the humanitarian catastrophes wrought by energy terror, we must ask: Should the deprivation of light and heat—elements as vital to survival as the air we breathe— not also be criminalized?
Perhaps then, war would lose its reason for being.