“President Putin seems to have decided that if he cannot take Ukraine by force, he will try to subjugate it by freezing it.” During a speech on Friday, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken outlined what appears to be Russia’s new strategy in Ukraine.
In recent weeks, Moscow has stepped up attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, leaving hundreds of thousands of people with no chance of heating as winter sets in. Latest example in late October, when massive attacks caused major outages in Kyiv.
Quick interventions
Faced with this situation, the employees of the different electricity companies mobilize daily. This is the case of Bogdan, who at the wheel of his diagnostic vehicle can identify where the faults are and send a technical team.
“After our tests, we get a diagram like this. The software studies the diagram and tells us where to intervene,” he explains to BFMTV. Before the war, these interventions were done twice a year, now they are several times a month.
On the ground, the electricians are lucid about the strategy used by Russia. “The enemy is clearly targeting the power infrastructure, we have a lot of destruction in our facilities,” confirms Andriy Toyunda, head of the power grid operation and distribution center in Kyiv.
“250,000 users in the Kyiv region were cut off as a result of this, but employees managed to restore power in a single day,” he said.
According to him, the conditions for the intervention of electricians remain extremely precarious, since Russian strikers can intervene at any time. “It really changes a lot because we’re forced to work in really tough conditions, and it’s not always safe,” he laments.
As of November 5, an estimated 450,000 households remain without power in the Kyiv region. Nationwide, that figure rises to 4.5 million people.
Source: BFM TV
