Ukraine’s electricity grid chief warned of hours-long power outages Friday (local time) as Russia zeroed in on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure with heavy artillery and missile attacks that have interrupted supplies to as many as 40 percent of Ukrainians at the onset of winter.
Freezing temperatures are putting additional pressure on energy networks, grid operator Ukrenergo said.
“You always need to prepare for the worst.
We understand that the enemy wants to destroy our power system in general, to cause long outages,” Ukrenergo’s chief executive Volodymyr Kudrytskyi told Ukrainian state television.
“We need to prepare for possible long outages, but at the moment we are introducing schedules that are planned and will do everything to ensure that the outages are not very long. ”
The capital, Kyiv, is already facing a “huge deficit in electricity”, Mayor Vitali Klitschko told The Associated Press.
Some 1.
5 million to 2 million people — about half of the city’s population — are periodically plunged into darkness as authorities switch electricity from one district to another.
“It’s a critical situation,” he said.
Klitschko added that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s military planners apparently are hoping “to bring us, everyone, to depression” to make people feel unsafe and “to think about, ‘Maybe we give up’. ” But it won’t work, he said.
“It’s wrong, it’s [a] wrong vision of Putin,” he said.
“After every rocket attack, I talk to the people, to simple civilians. They [are] not depressed. They were angry, angry and ready to stay and defend our houses, our families, and our future. ”
Kudrytskyi added that the power situation at critical facilities such as hospitals and schools has been stabilised.
Those facilities were targeted overnight in the North-Eastern Kharkiv region, where energy equipment was damaged, according to governor Oleh Syniehubov. Eight people including energy crews and police were injured trying to clear up the debris, he said.
Moscow’s attacks on Ukraine’s energy and power facilities have fuelled fears of what the dead of winter will bring.
Ukraine’s energy infrastructure had again been targeted Thursday (local time), two days after Russia unleashed a nationwide barrage of more than 100 missiles and drones that knocked out power to 10 million people.
Those attacks have also affected neighbouring countries like Moldova, where a half-dozen cities across the country experienced temporary blackouts.
Meanwhile, experts from Ukraine have joined Polish and American investigators who are looking into a missile blast that killed two men in eastern Poland this week.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that the Ukrainian experts were at the grain-drying facility in the Polish village of Przewodow where the missile landed.
The village is located about 6 kilometres from Poland’s border with Ukraine.
Kuleba tweeted, “We will continue our cooperation in an open and constructive manner, as closest friends do.
“I am grateful to the Polish side for granting them access. ”
Polish media reported seeing officials in Ukrainian uniforms arriving at the site mid-day Friday (local time).
Two workers were killed when a Russian-made projectile hit the grain-drying facility.
Ukraine suffered heavy Russian bombardment that day.
NATO and Poland’s leaders have said the missile most likely came from a Ukrainian air defence system, fired in response to Russia’s attack. Ukrainian authorities initially said the missile was not theirs and asked to join the probe.
US and Polish experts have been working at the site all week to establish the source and circumstances of the missile’s launch.
Polish officials say there are camera recordings of the events leading up to the blast, but they remain classified.
State funerals for the two men who died are expected over the weekend..
About Author
