Ukrainians may face up to eight-hour outages as the country deals with major damage to its power stations characterised by continued Russian attacks.
President Volodymyr Zelensky, addressing on Tuesday at a conference on Ukraine’s reconstruction, said Russia had damaged half of his country’s electricity-generating capability since it began bombarding its energy facilities in late March.
Residents of Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital with a population of three million, are experiencing some of the worst power outages.
The hum of generators reverberates across the city, and at night, the streets are frequently darkened.
Families with young children living on the top floors of apartment blocks have been left without working lifts, leaving them to walk up dozens of flights of stairs, sometimes with young children.
Ukraine is purchasing energy from the European Union to make up the shortage. Its energy ministry announced on Wednesday that it planned to import its highest amount of power to yet.
However, this is insufficient to cover its deficit, thus statewide power outages have been scheduled for an eight-hour period, from 3pm to 11pm, to protect essential infrastructure such as hospitals and military institutions.
The problem is predicted to deteriorate as summer temperatures rise and people switch on their air conditioners.
Overnight, Russia launched missile and drone attacks across Ukraine, including on the capital Kyiv.
The head of Kyiv’s military, Serhiy Popko, said nothing had got past the city’s air defence systems. However, an energy facility in the north-eastern Sumy region was damaged in the attack.
Oleg Strilka, from Sumy’s State Emergency Service, said that one of the effects of such prolonged power cuts was that people were plugging in all their electrical devices at the same time once the electricity returned, causing fires.
Mr Zelensky has told Western countries he needs another seven sophisticated air defence systems, called Patriots, in order to protect Ukraine’s cities and energy infrastructure. According to US media, Washington has agreed to send another such system to Ukraine in the coming days.
The Ukrainian government is planning for a worldwide peace summit in Switzerland this weekend, with the goal of rallying as many countries as possible behind its 10-point peace plan, which is based on Russia leaving from all Ukrainian territory. Russia has not been invited, and key countries such as China, Brazil, and South Africa will most likely not participate.
Recognizing the conference’s limitations, President Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, stated yesterday that Ukraine sought to first establish a broad base of support before examining the prospect of having a second summit, to which Russia would be invited.
