New power outages in Ukraine due to Russian airstrikes

Russian airstrikes caused further widespread power outages in Ukraine overnight, the Ministry of Energy announced in Kiev on Thursday.

Consumers in the Kharkiv and Zhytomyr regions are without power, the ministry said.

“Emergency and restoration work is being carried out wherever the security situation allows,” it said. In the Dnipropetrovsk region, the state utility Ukrenergo ordered emergency shutdowns due to previous damage to the grid.

Drone strikes were also reported in Lviv and Kiev and in cities near the front line, such as Sloviansk and Kramatorsk.

Since the beginning of October, Russia has fired on 11 hydroelectric power plants, Ukraine’s 45 largest power and heating plants, 49 heating-only plants and 151 substations, according to the SBU intelligence service.

The systematic attacks on the energy grid are legally classified as crimes against humanity because of their impact on the civilian population.

The situation remains most difficult in the capital, Kiev, according to the Ministry of Energy. As a result, it has not yet been possible to switch to planned hourly shutdowns, which offer greater reliability.

The city of 3 million has been almost completely paralysed since a severe attack last Friday. Electricity, heating and water supplies are only being restored gradually.

President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko of failing to prepare for such emergencies.

Klitschko, Zelensky’s rival in the 2019 presidential election, spoke of “uninterrupted hatred” on the part of the national leadership. In almost four years of war, he said, the president has not even spoken to him.

According to the Ministry of Energy, the Odessa region on the Black Sea is also still on emergency shutdown.

Russia has been waging a devastating war on neighbouring Ukraine since February 2022.