Ukraine faces a dark, frigid winter with more rolling blackouts likely
KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainians could face rolling blackouts from now through March amid frigid, snowy weather because Russian airstrikes have caused “colossal” damage to Ukraine’s power grid, officials said. To cope, authorities are urging people to stock up on supplies and evacuate hard-hit areas.
Sergey Kovalenko, the CEO of private energy provider DTEK Yasno, said 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,” Kovalenko warned on Facebook.
Russia has launched six massive aerial attacks against Ukraine’s power grid and other infrastructure since Oct. 10, damaging practically every thermal and hydroelectric power plant in the country, and “the scale of destruction is colossal,” Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, the CEO of Ukrenergo, the state-owned power grid operator, said Tuesday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Russian missile strikes have damaged more than half of the country’s energy facilities.
Temperatures commonly stay below freezing in Ukraine in the winter, and snow has already fallen in many areas, including Kyiv. Ukrainian authorities have started evacuating civilians from recently liberated sections of the southern Kherson and Mykolaiv regions out of fear that the winter will be too hard to survive.
“We are leaving now because it’s scary to sleep at night,” departing Kherson resident Tetyana Stadnik said on a cramped night sleeper train Monday as a dog wandered around. “Shells are flying over our heads and exploding. It’s too much. We will wait until the situation gets better. And then we will come back home.”
In other developments:
• Ukrainian authorities said Tuesday they were investigating the conduct of Russian troops who appeared in a video that Moscow alleged showed them trying to surrender, then being shot, after one of the men seemingly refused to lay down his weapon and opened fire. Russian authorities announced their own criminal investigation.
• U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen announced the disbursement of $4.5 billion in funds to help “Ukraine defend against Russia’s illegal war by bolstering economic stability and supporting core government services.” The package will help fund wages for hospital workers, government employees and teachers, as well as social assistance for the elderly and vulnerable.