Authorities in the Ukrainian capital have begun planning a total evacuation of the population, estimated at around three million, in case the bombing of Russian infrastructure continues and causes a total blackout. assures The New York Times this Sunday.
City authorities are struggling to maintain a power grid that is already severely damaged by Russian missiles, the newspaper says, noting that the situation is already dire, with 40% of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure damaged or destroyed.
According to the newspaper, city officials are installing 1,000 heated shelters, which can act as “bunkers” while engineers try to repair infrastructure bombed by Russian troops.
To try to prevent the grid from failing completely, Ukraine’s national power company said on Saturday it would continue to impose rolling blackouts in seven regions of the country.
The damage caused so far by the Russian strikes has caused “new suffering to Ukraine’s civilians and has forced the authorities to consider the possibility that further damage will prevent them from providing basic services,” the newspaper read.
“We understand that if Russia continues with these attacks, we could lose the entire electrical system,” Roman Tkachuk, security director of the kyiv municipal government, explained to the American newspaper.
The official added that the capital’s authorities were informed that they would probably receive at least 12 hours notice in case the network was about to fail.
If that time comes, Tkachuk said, “we will start informing people and asking them to leave” the city.
For now, the situation is “manageable” and there are no signs of large numbers of civilians leaving the capital, but that could change quickly if power-reliant services to the city are disrupted, the official said.
“If there is no electricity, there will be no water or sewage,” he said. “That is why the government and the municipality are taking all possible measures to protect the power supply system,” he added.
The Russian military spent weeks shelling critical infrastructure across Ukraine causing water, electricity and gas outages, worrying the kyiv government as winter approaches.
The military offensive launched on February 24 by Russia in Ukraine has already caused the flight of more than 13 million people -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 places this refugee crisis as the worst in Europe since the Second World War (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 international community in general, which has responded by sending weapons to Ukraine and imposing political sanctions on Russia. and economic. .
Source: TSF
