The Ukraine government has warned the residents in its capital, Kyiv, that power cuts may last up to four hours as the country’s main energy fields have been destroyed by Russian aerial strikes.
The power blackouts are not only applicable to Kyiv but also to other regions of the country, such as Dnipro.
President Volodymyr Zelensky stated that about four million people are affected by these blackouts and that their will to survive will not be broken by shelling.
Russia has launched a series of Iranian-made drones, which have hit the country’s crucial energy fields and have destroyed about one-third of the country’s power stations.
The capital region of Kyiv has lost about 30% of its electricity capacity and, according to the private firm DTEK, the power cuts are necessary and that the scale of restrictions should be significant, said Dmytro Sakhruk.
The power cuts have also hurdled the lives of ordinary people as there is no power supply to their homes, street lights, and to automobiles and public transportation that make use of electricity.
The EU and the international community have condemned Russia’s attack on Ukraine’s energy fields as a deliberate attack on civilian infrastructure, which the country sees as a war crime.
Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, also faced long blackouts as it was heavily damaged by Russian shelling, along with cities such as Zhytomyr, Poltava, and Chernihiv, in Central Ukraine.
Russia has increased its attacks on Ukraine following the destruction of the Kerch Bridge on October 9th, which was a critical bridge connecting the Chrimean peninsula to the Russian Federation and was inaugurated by Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2018 by driving a truck across it. The attack on the energy fields was retaliatory in nature.
The Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the destruction of the bridge was an “act of terrorism” form Ukraine, which was trashed by Kyiv.The Ukranian authorities have not confirmed till now if they were behind the destruction of the bridge. The bridge was also a symbol of the Russian campaign to annex large parts of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.
The employee of a Ukrainian power station, Pavlo, told the news agency AFP that it is the first time that they have sustained such damage from Russian attacks and that they were hit by two Iranian-manufactured Shahed-136 drones, more commonly known as “kamikaze” drones.
He also said that the repairs have been ongoing for the last two weeks and they are facing some issues as the equipment damaged in the drone strikes are “unique” and there are difficulties in finding the parts.
