Russian bombings: 40% of the Ukrainian electricity network still out of order

UPDATE DAY

Nearly half of Ukraine's electricity network remained out of order on Thursday, a week after the latest Russian strikes on energy infrastructure, private operator DTEK said, while highlighting the efforts “of day like night” electricians to repair them. 

“Russia destroyed 40% of Ukraine's energy system with terrorist missile attacks. Dozens of energy workers were killed and injured,” DTEK said in a statement posted on Telegram.

After suffering humiliating military defeats on the ground, Russia began targeting Ukrainian energy facilities in October, causing severe damage and leading to severe power shortages affecting millions of Ukrainians every day. 

On November 24, the last massive strikes on these sites left entire regions cold and dark, including the capital Kyiv.

And further Russian strikes risk dramatically worsening the energy situation, and triggering a new refugee crisis in the dead of winter.

“Electrical engineers are doing everything possible and impossible to stabilize the situation with regard to the energy supply”, indicated DTEK, affirming that its technical teams are working “day and night” to quickly repair these infrastructures.

The private operator also said “to do everything so that there is electricity in every house in Kyiv at least once or twice” a day.

To have some light or heat during the multiple daily time slots in which they are deprived of electricity, Ukrainians have to resort to alternative solutions, in particular using candles or generators, which sometimes lead to deadly accidental fires.

On Wednesday, Ukrainian emergency services said they had identified the day before not nine dead and eight injured in these domestic fires.