Electricity consumption will be further restricted in central Ukraine after fresh Russian strikes on the war-scarred country’s energy infrastructure, the presidency said Thursday.
For over two weeks Russia has pummelled Ukraine’s energy grid, destroying at least a third of the country’s power facilities with the winter months fast approaching.
“To prevent a complete power outage in the central region, energy companies are forced to impose stricter restrictions,” the deputy head of the Ukrainian presidency, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, said on social media.
The restrictions will concern the regions of Chernigiv, Cherkasy, Zhytomyr as well as the capital Kyiv and its surrounding area.
He did not say whether there were any victims as a result of the overnight strikes.
“Such measures allow energy companies to quickly repair damaged facilities and keep the system balanced,” Ukraine’s national energy operator Ukrenergo said in a statement.
The Kyiv region governor called on residents “to prepare for emergency power cuts for an indefinite period of time” and to use electricity “sparingly”.
“This is a forced step to stabilise the situation,” Oleksiy Kuleba added.
In the capital, power cuts lasting four hours or more have already been carried out in alternating districts for several days.
