Nearly four million people have been affected by power outages following recent Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday.
“In many cities and districts of our country, cuts have been made to stabilize” the situation, the minister explained during his daily video message to the nation.
“Nearly four million Ukrainians are currently facing these restrictions”he added.
The cuts affect the city of Kiev and its region, as well as the provinces of Zhitomyr (central west), Poltava, Cherkasy and Kirovograd in the center, Rivne (west), Kharkiv (east), Cherniguiv and Sumy in the north, the head of state.
Earlier in the day, Ukrainian private operator DTEK had announced “unprecedented” power cuts for “the coming days” in the capital and the region, following the massive damage inflicted on Ukraine’s electricity system by the Russian attacks.
For more than two weeks, Russia has been intensifying attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, which has destroyed at least a third of its capabilities in that region as winter approaches.
As a result, and in order to avoid power outages, power outages are imposed for several hours every day in many regions.
Kiev region governor Oleksiy Kuleba said through the social network Telegram that residents of the capital can expect “harder and longer” power cuts compared to the start of the war, the Associated Press (AP) reported.
In the Kharkiv region of northeastern Ukraine, the governor announced on Telegram that from Monday, daily one-hour power cuts will come into effect throughout the province, including the regional capital, Ukraine’s second-largest city.
The measurements “are needed to stabilize the power grid as the enemy continues to bomb the power infrastructure”underlined Oleg Syniehubov.
All over the country, authorities are calling on the population to save energy, reduce electricity consumption during peak hours and avoid the use of high-voltage equipment.
On Thursday, Agence France-Presse (AFP) visited a Ukrainian power plant hit by the Russians, where two workers were repairing a cable attached to a large pole.
According to one of the officials, the factory was hit twice by missiles and a third by an Iranian-made suicide drone.
This Friday, the head of Ukrainian diplomacy, Dmytro Kuleba, asked his Iranian counterpart to “immediately” stop supplying weapons to Moscow, in the first phone call between the two ministers since Kiev accused Russia of attacking Ukrainian cities using of the ‘drones’ Shahed 136 .
In a statement, Iran’s Foreign Ministry reiterated its denial of these allegations.
Volodymyr Zelensky, for his part, was not very optimistic on the subject and warned that the Russian leadership will seek all possibilities to continue the war, mainly “through its accomplices in Iran”.
The military offensive launched by Russia in Ukraine on Feb. 24 has already led to more than 13 million people fleeing — more than six million internally displaced persons and more than 7.7 million to European countries — according to the latest data from the UN, which ranks this refugee crisis as the worst in Europe since World War II (1939-1945).
The Russian invasion – justified by Russian President Vladimir Putin, with the need to “denazify” and demilitarize Ukraine for Russia’s security – was condemned by the generality of the international community, which has responded by sending arms to Ukraine and Russia of political and economic sanctions.
The UN has presented as confirmed since the start of the war, which entered its 247th day this Friday, that 6,374 civilians were killed and 9,776 injured, stressing that these numbers are far below the real one.
Source: DN
