Russia is carrying out a large-scale offensive on Ukrainian electricity installations, with the aim of destabilizing the Ukrainian national grid. This strategy, initiated ten days ago with great strike reinforcements, leads to dysfunctions in many cities, such as in Zhytomyr, located 150 kilometers west of kyiv. Franceinfo questioned its mayor, Serhiy Soukhomline.
Franceinfo: What is the situation in your city?
Serhiy Sukhomline: A first infrastructure was hit by a missile last week. Since then we have had problems with the electricity supply. On Monday, again, an electricity supply unit was hit by a missile and the town was without power all day. Hospitals and medical institutions have been able to operate on backup power systems. Gradually, we managed to reconnect the water and heating suppliers, because there was nothing left. We had to wait until last night to connect the last district of the city.
What have you put in place to preserve your electrical network?
We have decided to turn off all light displays and streetlights in the city, and we have also reduced public electric transport. It’s also a way to help kyiv, and to maintain a balance on the network. Electric transport, such as trams and trolleybuses, are no longer operational in the city. We had to mobilize substitute buses, which run on petrol. But we don’t have enough to cover the entire territory of the city.
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Major companies are also on hold as repair operations are still ongoing. This particularly concerns goods and services, and you know how much this can have consequences for the population. At the end of the day (Wednesday), we hope to have enough electricity to make everything work again in Zhytomyr.
How does the population react?
This will not be enough to break the morale of Ukrainians. People are ready for that. You know, the situation is more difficult for our soldiers who defend our country, on the front line. Here, we just try to do our best, dealing with all these malfunctions and cuts.
Winter is coming. How do you prepare for it?
The heating season starts tomorrow (Thursday) in our city. But to start the heat production plants, we need electricity. It is therefore a challenge for the whole city. Two hours ago, for example, missiles again hit a thermal power plant in a neighboring region.
“We know that these bombings will continue like this, because the Russians want to remove the electricity system from all of Ukraine.”
Serhiy Sukhomlin, mayor of Zhytomyrat franceinfo
We are working on a program to support heating and water suppliers with standby generators. According to our calculations, we need 50 units, with a power of 100 kW to 1 MW, in order to maintain the stability of the heating and water distribution. They should make it possible to guarantee this supply for four to six hours a day, enough to prevent the freezing of the entire system and, perhaps, to constitute small stocks of water in the buildings.
Will the Russian strategy turn the war upside down?
Vladimir Putin uses civilians as hostages, as an instrument of war. Maybe he wants to break the spirit of the Ukrainians to force them to negotiate, or show his opinion what he is capable of doing. Or maybe he also wants to train Europe to put pressure on kyiv. In reality, hitting energy infrastructure will achieve nothing. The war will be won on the battlefield.
How do you react when you see these streets without power?
In the darkness, you can really feel the untouched soul of this city. But of course, these are complex feelings. Before the war, Zhytomyr had 260,000 inhabitants and we don’t know how many are left now. Zhytomyr was a city of learning, with three universities, and entertainment, with its concerts. I wouldn’t say the city is dormant, but it’s kind of numb, waiting. I would still like to add something: the day the city was completely deprived of power, sixteen children were born in our maternity ward.