Warning of mass evacuations in Kyiv if all power lost in Putin blitz
capital could face widespread evacuations as Russia launches “mass attacks” on the nation’s power grid.
Kyiv’s mayor Vitali Klitschko and President Volodymyr Zelensky sounded warnings yesterday as Vladimir Putin’s forces rained missile and drone strikes on the country’s energy networks.
Planned blackouts were due to hit seven regions yesterday, Ukraine’s state-run energy company said.
They included the city of Kyiv and its regions, plus Chernihiv, Cherkasy, Zhytomyr, Sumy, Kharkiv and Poltava.
It also emerged occupied Black Sea port city Kherson had lost power for the first time since Russia began its invasion.
Mr Zelensky said: “We understand the terrorist state is concentrating forces and means for a possible repetition of mass attacks on our infrastructure. First of all, energy.
“In particular, for this, Russia needs Iranian missiles. We are preparing to respond.”
His adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said Ukraine would stand firm using air defence, protecting infrastructure and optimising power consumption.
The warnings came as Ukraine released dramatic images of fighter jets destroying a Russian ammunition convoy in what they claimed were at least a dozen successful hits of important enemy military targets.
Strikes by Moscow over the past month have destroyed around a third of Ukraine’s power stations.
Kyiv has urged people to conserve electricity as much as possible.
The head of energy firm Yasno, Sergei Kovalenko, said Ukraine faced losing a third of its power supply.
Authorities have issued scheduled blackouts across the country in order to stabilise the grid.
In the meantime, 17 EU countries have sent 500 power generators to help ease the energy crisis.
President Zelensky said the “stabilisation blackouts” would continue in Kyiv and the six regions.
Describing the situation as “really difficult”, he said more than 4.5 million Ukrainians, mostly in Kyiv and its surrounding region, were without electricity.
Mayor Mr Klitschko, 51, a former world heavyweight boxing champion, said he could not rule out a total blackout. He told people if that happened they should consider leaving the capital. He said residents should prepare for the emergency by buying power banks and warm clothes.
In the case of an all-out blackout, Mr Klitschko said they should try to stay with relatives outside the capiUKRAINE’S
tal. He told them: “If you have extended family or friends outside Kyiv, where there is autonomous water supply, an oven, heating, please keep in mind the possibility of staying there for a certain amount of time.”
However, Mr Klitschko urged people in the capital not to be “pessimistic”, saying he was only advising them to prepare for different scenarios. The mayor added: “We will do everything that depends on us so that such a scenario does not happen.”
In Kherson, the Moscow-run administration said electricity and water supplies were down after a “terrorist attack” damaged three power lines on the Berislav Kakhovka highway.
In a statement on Telegram, Yuriy Sobolevskyi, the deputy head of Kherson regional council, said about 10 settlements were affected, as well as the main city.
Russian officials have said Ukraine is preparing to attempt a second offensive to retake more of the Kherson area.
Recapturing it would have immense symbolic and logistical value for Ukraine – Russia wants the area to secure a water supply to Crimea, as well as a land bridge to Russia.
Yaroslav Yanushevych, head of Kherson’s regional government, blamed Russia for the blackouts.
He said about a mile of electric lines had been destroyed in the city of Beryslav, cutting off power entirely, because the “damage is quite extensive”.