On Thursday, large-scale countrywide power outages hit Ukraine for the first time as authorities tried to limit supplies so that energy providers could rebuild power plants damaged by Russian airstrikes.
Late on Wednesday, the president’s administration advised Ukrainians to limit their power consumption from 7 am to 11 pm and be ready for brief blackouts if they did not.
However, key cities like the nation’s capital, Kyiv, and Kharkiv in the northeast imposed restrictions on the usage of electric-powered public transportation, such as trolleybuses, and decreased train frequency. There was no timeframe set for disruptions.
The leading electrical provider in Kiev, DTEK, assured customers that it would try to keep blackouts under four hours.
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The whole northeastern province of Sumy, which borders Russia, said it would be without water, electric transportation, or street lighting for the entire day, from 7:00 am to 2:00 pm local time.
Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, chief of grid operator Ukrenergo, told Ukrainians during wartime television programming early on Thursday, “We need time to restart power plants, we need relief from our users.”
According to President Volodymyr Zelensky, Russian airstrikes have destroyed 30% of Ukraine’s power plants in a little more than a week.
He added that three other energy plants had been attacked that day late on Wednesday.
In his nightly address to the country, he pleaded with Ukrainians to reduce their power usage and utilize gadgets that consume a lot of energy.
One of the targets was a significant coal-fired thermal power plant in the western Ukrainian city of Burshtyn.
Svitlana Onyshchuk, the governor of Ivano-Frankivsk, claimed on Ukrainian television that there had been considerable devastation due to the attack.
Last week, Russia intensified its strikes on Ukraine’s vital infrastructure.