(Kyiv) Ukraine announced new power cuts across its territory for Friday due to an electricity shortage caused by Russian strikes that seriously damaged its power plants.
In recent months, Russia has begun a new bombing campaign against its neighbor’s thermal and hydraulic power stations, destroying, according to experts, half of the electricity production capacity it had at the end of the winter.
“Today, electricity consumption limits are in force in all regions,” state energy company Ukrenergo said in a statement.
On Thursday evening, emergency cuts had to be applied for three hours in twelve regions of Ukraine and in its capital Kyiv, the group added.
“The main reason for the restrictions is the impact of six enemy missile attacks on Ukrainian power plants” which suffered significant destruction leading to a drop in their production, Ukrenergo explained.
To compensate for its losses, Ukraine now imports electricity from several nearby countries, but “because of the scale of the damage, these measures are not enough to balance the system”, lamented the company.
In Kyiv, where some public lighting and traffic lights are disconnected and entire neighborhoods are in the dark, consumption limits set for Friday only cover 75% of electricity needs, according to municipal authorities .
Since the new series of Russian bombings on the electricity grid, Ukrainians have been facing long daily power outages.
“We are dealing with destruction on an absolutely unprecedented scale” and the complete restoration of production may take “years”, warned the director of Ukrenergo Volodymyr Kudrytsky in an interview with Ukrainian media published by his service Press.
The capacity of thermal power plants is at its “historic” lowest level and there is “practically no hydroelectric power plant that has not been damaged”, underlined this official.
A nuclear reactor must be put back into service “during the night from Friday to Saturday” after work, which should make it possible to increase production and temporarily reduce outages, said Mr. Koudrytsky.
However, further deterioration is expected towards the end of the month due to rising temperatures and increased power consumption, he warned.
The first campaign of Russian strikes specifically targeting energy sites had left millions of Ukrainians without electricity, running water and heating in freezing temperatures during the winter of 2022-2023