Ukraine says its power system endured ‘most difficult day’ since November 2022 blackout

ISTANBUL

Ukrainian Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal has said that his country’s power system endured its “most difficult day” since a nationwide blackout was enacted following Russian strikes in November 2022.

“Today was the most difficult day for the power system in Ukraine since the blackout in November 2022,” Shmyhal said in a statement on Telegram late Thursday.

Shmyhal said the situation is “extremely difficult” due to a combination of factors caused by Russian shelling, including damage to generation infrastructure and destroyed distribution networks and transformers.

He further said that energy workers are forced to continue to use emergency shutdowns, and that special schedules are being applied by the country’s power grid operator Ukrenergo to “preserve the integrity of the power system.”

“The most difficult situation is in Kyiv, the Kyiv region and the Dnipropetrovsk region,” Shmyhal noted, saying 165 repair crews worked on restoring heat to residences in Kyiv during the day and that work is significantly complicated by security conditions.

Shmyhal said the 2000th air alert since the introduction of martial law was sounded in the capital that evening.

He also said that while he understands the situation is extremely difficult for people amid constant attacks, cases of physical aggression against repair crews are “unacceptable.”

“These people work in the cold around the clock, at the limit of their capabilities. They are real heroes. They do everything possible to restore light and heat as soon as possible,” he added.

A state of emergency was announced by Ukraine in its energy sector last week due to extreme weather conditions and Russian strikes, notably on Jan. 9, when much of Kyiv was left without power.

Although most of the 6,000 buildings in Kyiv that lost access to heating after the Jan. 9 attack were restored, according to Mayor Vitali Klitschko, renewed strikes on Tuesday resulted in over 5,600 high-rise buildings losing access to heating once again.

Klitschko said Friday morning that 1,940 high-rise buildings remain without heat supply amid ongoing efforts to restore them, noting most of these buildings are situated in districts on the left bank of the city.

Russia said its Jan. 9 attack was carried out in response to an attempted drone strike by Ukraine on President Vladimir Putin’s residence in the Novgorod region late last year. Kyiv had immediately denied the claims, arguing that the accusations seek to undermine diplomatic efforts to end the nearly four-year war.

In November 2022, Shmyhal, who was then Ukraine’s prime minister, said major Russian strikes disabled almost half of the country’s energy system. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said then that ​​more than 10 million people had lost access to electricity.