Ukraine faces nationwide blackouts after Russian strikes
For the first time since Russia invaded, Ukraine is facing major nationwide disruptions to electricity and rolling blackouts from widespread damage to the country’s power infrastructure from Russian missile strikes this month.
Ukrainian officials have tried to limit supply to allow energy companies to repair power plants that have been shut down Russian airstrikes.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has urged people to use as little electricity as possible from 07:00 to 23:00 and prepare for temporary blackouts if this is not done. Russian attacks have knocked out 30% of the country’s power plants, causing massive blackouts.
The new development comes just weeks after Russia and Belarus announced this formation of a new joint forcewith the Ukrainian army seeing increasing military threats from the north.
On Thursday morning, Russia hit Mykolaiv and the surrounding region with C-300 missiles, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the president’s office, revealed on Telegram. Russia hit an industrial plant and energy infrastructure in the Kryvyi Rih district of the Dnipropetrovsk region overnight, causing severe damage. However, Ukrainian forces have repulsed Russian attacks near nine settlements in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, Ukraine’s General Staff has said.
Last month, Ukraine’s state nuclear company Energy atom reported that the final working reactor at the six-reactor plant in Zaporizhzhia in southern Ukraine was disconnected from Ukraine’s grid after Russian bombing disrupted power lines. The massive Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) – the largest in Europe – was captured by Russian forces in March, but is still operated by Ukrainian engineers and staff.
Ukraine has been unable to repair the power lines due to heavy fighting and shelling raging around the station, Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko wrote on Facebook.
According to Galushchenko, the new bombing hit shortly after most of the inspectors from a mission by the UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), left the facility earlier on Monday. Reactors number five and six are still in use, but are currently disconnected from the grid after suffering repeated shutdowns due to heavy shelling.
By Alex Kimani for Oilprice.com
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