Ukrainians brace for bleak winter as blackouts may continue until March

Rolling blackouts across Ukraine may continue until March, according to one of the country’s energy chiefs, as Ukrainians brace for a grim winter after weeks of relentless Russian strikes against the country’s power grid.

Sergey Kovalenko, chief executive of private energy provider DTEK Yasno, said in a Facebook post late on Monday that the company is under instructions from Ukraine’s state grid operator to resume emergency blackouts in the areas it covers, including the capital, Kyiv, and the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region.

“Although there are fewer blackouts now, I want everyone to understand – most likely, Ukrainians will have to live with blackouts until at least the end of March,” Mr Kovalenko warned.

“I think we need to be prepared for different

options, even the worst ones. Stock up on warm clothes, blankets, think about what will help you wait out a long shutdown,” he urged Ukrainian residents.

Russia has been pummelling Ukraine’s power grid and other infrastructure from the air for weeks. That onslaught has caused widespread blackouts and deprived millions of Ukrainians of electricity, heat and water. Temperatures commonly

remain below freezing in Ukraine in the winter months. Ukrainian authorities have started evacuating civilians from recently liberated sections of the southern Kherson and Mykolaiv regions amid fears that the winter will be hard to survive.

Mr Kovalenko added that even if no more Russian strikes occur, scheduled outages will be needed across Ukraine to ensure that power is evenly distributed across the battered energy grid.

Ukrainian soldiers in a captured Russian T-80 tank fire at a Russian position in the Donetsk region.