The three Ukrainian nuclear power plants under Kiev’s control were reconnected to the power grid this Thursday, after being disconnected on Wednesday following massive Russian attacks, Ukraine’s energy ministry announced.
“After the massive bombing on Wednesday, workers in the energy sector managed (…) to reconnect three nuclear power plants to the grid in the morning,” the ministry said today on the Telegram social network, adding that these installations would should start to supply electricity “until tonight”.
The nuclear power plants in question are Khmelnytsky and Rivne (west) and Pivdennooukraïnsk (south), which were shut down by the automatic protection system after the Russian attacks that hit several Ukrainian electrical infrastructures.
“If there are no new attacks, we can significantly reduce the deficit [de eletricidade] in the energy system by the end of the day,” Ukrainian Energy Minister Guerman Galouchchenko said, quoted in his ministry’s communiqué.
Across the country, “the situation is generally difficult”, but in some regions “electricity supply has already increased”, Galushchenko assured, also underlining that “critical infrastructure across the country” can be reconnected to the grid.
Kiev mayor Vitaly Klitschko announced on Telegram that “70 percent of the capital was without electricity this morning”.
Water supplies, which were cut in most of the city after the power outage on Wednesday, have been restored in neighborhoods on the left bank of the Dnieper, the mayor said. Klitschko hopes that the rest of Kiev will be supplied with water during the day on Thursday.
Russia fired more than 70 cruise missiles at Ukraine on Wednesday, exacerbating the energy crisis after weeks of bombings that hit power infrastructure in particular.
According to the Ministry of Energy, these attacks left “the vast majority of consumers” in the country, which had a population of about 40 million before the start of the Russian invasion on February 24, without electricity.
Source: DN
