Another wave of Russian missile strikes left several Ukrainian regions without power on Thursday, with crews across the country racing to restore power as the New Year holidays approach.
Ukraine’s Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said that infrastructure in Kyiv, in north central Ukraine, and Odesa, in the south, had been damaged in the barrage and were experiencing emergency power outages — when the electricity is protectively turned off to diminish damage from the grid shorting out.
“Today the enemy carried out another massive attack on the energy infrastructure of Ukraine,” Halushchenko said in a post on Facebook. “Unfortunately, there is some damage to generation facilities and power grids. As of 11:00, the situation is difficult in the west of the country, Odesa and Kyiv regions.”
Forty percent of Kyiv residents were without power, mayor Vitali Klitschko said Thursday, adding that this was due to security measures taken by power engineers during the air raid alarm and that they were now working to restore services. “The city is supplying heat and water in normal mode,” Klitschko said on the messaging platform Telegram.
Authorities in Odesa, in southern Ukraine, said that emergency power outages had been rolled out amid the missile attacks. “They are introduced due to the threat of missile attacks to avoid significant damage if the enemy manages to hit energy facilities,” DTEK, a utility company, said in a statement.
In western Ukraine, Lviv Mayor Andrii Sadovyi said that 90% of the city was without power, cautioning that the city’s waterworks could also to stop working.
