Kyiv — Large parts of the Ukrainian capital have experienced rolling blackouts in recent weeks after a spike in Russian attacks over the past month that destroyed an estimated 30% of Ukraine’s electricity and heating capacity.
Kyiv pursues a decisive strategy of targeting such facilities to increase the influx of Ukrainian refugees into Europe and subjugate the country’s population, as Russia continues to suffer a series of embarrassing setbacks on the battlefield. I am accused of doing so.
Ukraine’s power plants and distribution grid have also been heavily bombed in the past few weeks. On October 22, a power plant in Lutsk, in northwestern Ukraine, was hit by three Russian cruise missiles, causing significant damage, according to mayor Ihor Polyshchuk.
“In fact, it’s been destroyed,” Polandczuk told Yahoo News. “Restore is currently not possible.”
Rolling blackouts are part of the Ukrainian government’s response to reduce electricity consumption. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has also appealed to citizens to reduce their daily electricity usage as part of their patriotic duty to the war.
“Don’t turn on unnecessary appliances,” Zelensky urged in his Oct. 19 address to the nation. [of] Electrical appliances that consume a lot of energy. ”
According to Alan Riley, UK energy security expert and Senior Fellow of the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Center, Russia is targeting substations that transmit and distribute electricity rather than generate it. . The Ukrainians have significantly strengthened their main power plants with home-made or Western-supplied air defense systems.
“Nuclear power plants and the like are well protected,” Riley says. What the Russians have done is get rid of substations that are all Soviet-era and no longer manufactured. As a result, it becomes much more difficult to fix. ”
Germany hastened the handover of its IRIS-T air defense platform to Ukraine after Russia’s recent large-scale attack on civilian infrastructure that began on October 10. Ukraine’s other Western partners have promised to speed up the delivery of their own systems. At a Ukrainian Defense Liaison Group meeting on October 12, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin promised that the US system would be “provided as soon as possible.”
The problem is that there are hundreds of substations throughout Ukraine that should be protected. “Russia may run out of precision-guided weapons, but they’re just swarming on targets, as we’ve seen with these cheap and deadly Iranian drones,” Reilly said. “It doesn’t have to be exact. They have to be constant.
Other Ukrainian government officials were pessimistic about Ukraine’s ability to keep the lights on this winter. “Unfortunately, the grid will not hold up,” said Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk, adding that Ukrainians temporarily displaced by the war should not return home until spring. “Don’t come back. If you have the means to spend this winter abroad, do it.”
Despite increased Russian attacks on critical Ukrainian civilian infrastructure over the past month, the determination of Ukrainian civilians has remained unwavering. “If Putin cuts off power in Ukraine, in 9 months there will be more Ukrainians!” is his one damn joke going viral on social media. At the same time, people are preparing for a dark and cold winter as power and water supplies will almost certainly be disrupted. Ukrainians are loading blankets and candles. Small gas camping stoves are currently out of stock in most retail stores in Kyiv.
Anna from Kyiv, who refused to give her last name, told Yahoo News: he is evil ”
Rolling blackouts are now common in the capital and other major Ukrainian cities, despite running on predictable schedules that homes and businesses can plan in advance. A power outage was underway when I visited Podil, a trendy neighborhood in Hara Terrace. We were able to rely on the aircraft to power the facility. Young Ukrainians were drinking in the dark, dancing to the music of street performers, and waving their phones back and forth like writers at Rock-his concerts.
In elevators, which can lose power at unexpected intervals, volunteers left boxes with blankets, drinking water, and other essentials in case unfortunate residents become trapped between floors during a power outage. A sense of community developed, and neighbors who had previously spoken only a few words to each other suddenly found themselves making plans to survive the worst winter, and in some cases literally huddled together.
“The British survived the blitz and did it without rave music,” Ilya, another Kyiv resident, told Yahoo News. “Also, my apartment is on the same grid as the US Embassy. , thank America.”
