Ukraine could face rolling blackouts through March because Russian airstrikes have caused “colossal” damage to the power grid, officials said. To cope with the harsh winter, authorities are urging Ukrainians to stock up on supplies and evacuate hard-hit areas.
Sergey Kovalenko, the CEO of private energy provider DTEK Yasno, said the company is under instructions from Ukraine’s state grid operator to resume emergency blackouts in the areas it covers, including the capital Kyiv and the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region.
“Although there are fewer blackouts now, I want everyone to understand: Most likely, Ukrainians will have to live with blackouts until at least the end of March,” Kovalenko warned on Facebook.
“We need to be prepared for different options, even the worst ones. Stock up on warm clothes and blankets. Think about what will help you wait out a long shutdown,” he told Ukrainian residents.
Russia has launched six massive aerial attacks against Ukraine’s power grid and other infrastructure since Oct. 10, as the war approaches its nine-month milestone. That targeted onslaught has caused widespread blackouts and deprived millions of Ukrainians of electricity, heat and water.
“This winter will be life-threatening for millions of people in Ukraine,” warned Dr Hans Henri P. Kluge, the World Health Organisation’s regional director for Europe, due to the lack of power and damage to Ukraine’s health facilities.
Temperatures commonly stay below freezing in Ukraine in the winter, and snow has already fallen in many areas, including Kyiv. Ukrainian authorities have started evacuating civilians from recently liberated sections of the southern Kherson and Mykolaiv regions out of fear that the winter will be too hard to survive.
Kovalenko said even if no more Russian airstrikes occur, scheduled outages will be needed to ensure that power is evenly distributed.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Russian missile strikes have damaged more than half of the country’s energy facilities.
The series of attacks — with the most severe on Nov. 15, involving 100 heavy Russian rockets — has damaged practically every thermal and hydroelectric power plant in the country, and “the scale of destruction is colossal”, Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, the CEO of Ukrenergo, the state-owned power grid operator, said Tuesday. In addition, electric substations have been damaged, while nuclear power plants have largely been spared, he said.
Also Tuesday, the Kyiv regional authorities said more than 150 settlements were enduring emergency blackouts due to the onset of winter weather, including snowfall and high winds.
The battle for terrain, while slowed due to the weather, has continued, with Ukrainian forces pressing a counteroffensive and Moscow’s troops keeping up artillery shelling and missile strikes.
In a key battlefield development, Natalia Humeniuk of the Ukrainian army’s Operational Command South said on Ukrainian television that Kyiv’s forces are attacking Russian positions on the Kinburn Spit, a gateway to the Black Sea basin, as well as parts of the southern Kherson region still under Russian control.
The Kinburn Spit is Russia’s last outpost in Ukraine’s southern Mykolayiv region, directly west of Kherson. Ukrainian forces recently liberated other parts of the Kherson and Mykolaiv regions. Moscow has used the Kinburn Spit as a staging ground for missile and artillery strikes on Ukrainian positions in the Mykolaiv province, and elsewhere along the Ukrainian-controlled Black Sea coast.
Recapturing the Kinburn Spit could help Ukrainian forces push into territory that Russia still holds in the Kherson region “under significantly less Russian artillery fire” than if they directly crossed the Dnieper River, a Washington-based think tank said. The Institute for the Study of War added that control of the area would help Kyiv alleviate Russian strikes on Ukraine’s southern seaports and allow it to increase its naval activity in the Black Sea.
In other developments:
— Ukraine’s counter-intelligence service, police officers and the country’s National Guard on Tuesday searched one of the most famous Orthodox Christian sites in the capital, Kyiv, after a priest spoke favourably about Russia during a service.
— Ukraine’s presidential office said Tuesday at least eight civilians were killed and 16 were injured over the previous 24 hours, as Moscow’s forces again used drones, rockets and heavy artillery to pound eight Ukrainian regions.
—In the eastern Donetsk region, fierce battles continued around Bakhmut, where the Kremlin’s forces are keen to clinch a victory after weeks of embarrassing military setbacks. Donetsk Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko also said Russia launched missiles at Kramatorsk, a Ukrainian military hub, and the city of Avdiivka. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov hinted at clashes near the Donetsk village of Pavlivka, saying Russian troops “destroyed” three Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance units.
— One civilian was killed and three others wounded after Russian forces shelled the city of Kherson, Ukraine’s presidential office said.
—Two civilians died Tuesday in the Russian border region of Belgorod, its governor said on Telegram. Vyacheslav Gladkov said a married couple was killed by an unexploded munition in Staroselye, on the border with Ukraine’s northern Sumy region. The governor also said a woman was killed in the shelling of Shebekino, close to Ukraine’s Kharkiv province. He blamed Ukrainian forces.
—A social worker was killed and two other civilians were wounded Tuesday after Russian tank shells hit an aid distribution point in southern Ukraine, according to Zaporizhzhia Gov. Oleksandr Starukh.
—Ukrainian officials on Tuesday handed over the bodies of 33 soldiers recovered from Russia to their families, according to a ministry tasked with reintegrating areas occupied by Moscow.
—U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen announced the disbursement of $4.5 billion in funds to help “Ukraine defend against Russia’s illegal war by bolstering economic stability and supporting core government services.” The package will help fund wages for hospital workers, government employees and teachers, as well as social assistance for the elderly and vulnerable.