Ukraine announced electricity restrictions at the end of the day on Wednesday after a new “massive” Russian drone and missile attack against its energy network, which left at least one dead and around ten injured.
Since the start of the year, Ukrainian electrical installations have suffered several waves of Russian bombing, causing serious damage and power cuts. “The enemy is not giving up its plans to deprive Ukrainians of light. New massive attack on our energy industry,” Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko wrote on Telegram on Wednesday.
Electricity production and transmission sites were targeted in the regions of Poltava (east), Kirovograd (center), Zaporizhia (south), Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Vinnytsia (west), he said. The city of Kherson, in the south, was also “partially deprived of electricity” due to “enemy strikes”, according to the local governor.
Late in the afternoon, the national electricity company Ukrenergo indicated that it will have to limit its supply of energy to industries and businesses between 6 p.m. and 11 p.m., due to the attack. “The restrictions will be applied equally in all regions,” said the operator, calling on users to restrict their electricity consumption between 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. to avoid emergency cuts.
At midday, the Ukrainian Ministry of Energy claimed to have restored power to more than 50,000 users temporarily deprived of electricity.
For its part, the Russian army assured that it had carried out strikes against the Ukrainian energy network and military industry in response to attacks by kyiv against its own installations.
Several injured in the attacks
The Ukrainian Air Force claimed to have shot down 39 of 55 missiles launched by Russia, as well as 20 of 21 attack drones. According to the DTEK company, the largest private investor in the energy sector in Ukraine, three thermal power plants were “seriously damaged”.
These nighttime attacks killed a 65-year-old woman in a village in the southern region of Kherson and injured three other people, according to the local prosecutor’s office. One person was also injured in the Dnipropetrovsk region (south), two in Brovary, near Kiev, at least two others in the capital, and an 8-year-old child in the Kirovograd region (center), according to officials. local authorities. In the middle of the day, a separate Russian strike also hit a sports field in Kharkiv (north-east), injuring seven people, including four children, the local prosecutor’s office announced.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmygal took part in a new government working group tasked with preparing businesses and households for possible power and heating cuts during the coming autumn and winter. On Telegram, he claimed that more than 800 heating installations had been destroyed or damaged since the Russian invasion and that the country had lost up to 8 gigawatts of electricity production.
According to him, Ukraine will need around a billion dollars (931 million euros) to restore its capabilities. kyiv has already raised 410 million euros through a “Supply Fund for Energy in Ukraine” and 190 million dollars (177 million euros) through a support program of the United States Development Agency (USAID).