Kyiv, Ukraine
Reuters
Ukraine’s daily electricity imports will reach their highest this year on Tuesday after a series of Russian missile strikes on critical infrastructure caused blackouts in many regions, the energy ministry said.
The attacks, the biggest of which came on Friday, have caused major damage to generating and transmission facilities, forcing Kyiv to halt power exports.
Smoke rises in the sky over a high-voltage line at the site of a Russian missile strike in its attack on Ukraine outside Kharkiv, Ukraine, on 22nd March, 2024. PICTURE: /Sofiia Gatilova/File Photo
Power imports are expected to reach 18,649 megawatt hours on Tuesday, up from 14,900 MWh on Sunday, the ministry said in a statement.
By contrast, Ukraine had exported 3,300 MWh the day before the first wave of Russian attacks on 22nd March.
Ukraine has been connected to the European Union’s united grid since the first weeks of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February, 2022. The imports come from Romania, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and Moldova, the Ukrenergo grid operator told Reuters.
Ukraine, which has an extensive civilian nuclear energy sector, was a net exporter of power before the invasion and subsequent Russian occupation of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant.
“Serious damage”
In the north-eastern border city of Kharkiv and parts of southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, 200,000 residents have gone without electricity since last Friday’s attacks.
“Very serious damage to the power system makes it impossible to connect all people and houses to the grid and there are parts of the city where blackouts last four to six hours,” Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov told state television.
“Today underground transport is already working, however…[other] electric transport is not working today in Kharkiv,” he said.
Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, head of Ukrenergo, which operates Ukraine’s transmission lines, told a televised news briefing in Kharkiv the company had a plan to restore power supply.
“It’s still hard to guarantee any timeline, but we’re talking about a period of 7-10 days, maybe two weeks when we can restore normal power supplies to the city. Provided there is no new destruction,” he said.
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Emergency power outages have also been introduced in Ukraine’s Black Sea port city of Odesa.
Deputy Odesa governor Serhiy Kropyva told national television 23,000 residents were without electricity as of Tuesday noon while “the transport system was almost completely restored.”
He said the maritime Black Sea transport corridor continued to function despite the attacks.
“Ships leave periodically from all ports located on the territory of the Odesa region,” Kropyva said.
Moscow has said that Ukrainian power facilities are legitimate targets and such attacks are aimed at weakening Kyiv’s military.
It says the latest strikes are retaliation for Ukrainian attacks that overshadowed the re-election of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
