KYIV (The Thursday Times) — Russia struck six major power substations across central Ukraine overnight into Wednesday, Prime Minister Serhii Koretskyi said, the second night in a row of attacks on the grid as the country heads into what could be the hardest winter of the war.
Substations were hit in the Vinnytsia, Kirovohrad, Zhytomyr, and Cherkasy regions, and power lines were damaged in Kirovohrad and Rivne, Koretskyi said in a Telegram post. A heating plant in the central city of Kryvyi Rih was also hit, cutting heating to residential buildings, and rail lines were damaged in the Dnipropetrovsk and Zhytomyr regions.
At least 14 people were injured in the overnight attacks, he said.
Outages in eight regions
Ukrenergo, the national grid operator, reported outages for consumers in eight regions, including Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Zhytomyr, Rivne, and Chernihiv. Industry faced limits on how much power it could draw, while households were put on scheduled hourly cuts, with emergency outages in Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk on Wednesday morning.
Rolling blackouts have been in place since October, earlier in the year than last winter, as Russia has stepped up its campaign against Ukraine’s energy system. In parts of Kyiv, residents have gone without electricity for most of the day, and when the power goes, so do lifts and, in many tower blocks, running water, which needs electric pumps.
Damage to large substations can black out areas far from the sites that are hit, and repairs are slowed by repeated air-raid alerts that force engineers to stop work and take cover.
Strikes on both sides
Ukraine has answered with drone strikes on Russian oil refineries and ports. The latest round of energy attacks came as Russian and Ukrainian negotiators, meeting in Abu Dhabi under US mediation, agreed in principle on a large prisoner exchange but made no breakthrough on ending the war.
With temperatures falling, some families have left the capital for areas with steadier power or for abroad, while others are bracing for longer cuts as winter sets in.
