Ukraine curbs power use as Russia continues all-out assault on energy infrastructure

Nationwide electricity restrictions put in place in response

Ukraine has begun restricting electricity use following a devastating series of attacks by Russian on its power facilities.

Government officials and grid operator Ukrenergo said power supplies will be curb usage between 7am and 11pm, and temporary blackouts were possible. The restriction is limited - for now - to Thursday but could be extended.

The announcement came after Moscow accelerated its attacks on “critical infrastructure” in Ukraine, targeting the country’s power and water supplies.

“There is new damage to critical infrastructure. Three energy facilities were destroyed by the enemy today,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his Wednesday night video address.

“We are preparing for all kinds of scenarios in view of the winter season. We assume that Russian terror will be directed at energy facilities until, with the help of partners, we are able to shoot down 100% of enemy missiles and drones,” said Zelensky, who earlier in the week said a third of his country’s power stations had been hit by Russian air strikes.

Ukraine‘s energy minister said the government was seeking a 20 per cent reduction in energy use and that Ukrainians had responded to an appeal to limit their use of power.

The minister, Herman Halushchenko, said on Ukrainian television that Russia had launched more than 300 air strikes on Ukrainian energy facilities since 10 October.

Russia’s defence ministry said on Thursday that its forces had continued to hit military and energy targets in Ukraine over the last 24 hours.

With this worst-case scenario in mind as a brutal winter approaches, Ukrainians have been stockpiling torches, candles and firewood, and have also stored canned and preserved vegetables as well as bottled water and warm clothes.

Firefighters work after a drone attack on buildings in Kyiv (AP)

Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said Thursday marked the start of the heating season for Kyiv, where heating for apartment buildings and businesses in the city is controlled by a Soviet-era central system.

One area where power and water were reported knocked out by shelling was Enerhodar, the southern city is next to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, one of the war’s most worrying flashpoints.

Missiles also severely damaged an energy facility near Zelensky’s hometown of Kryvyi Rih in south-central Ukraine, cutting power to villages, towns and to one city district, the regional governor said.

The mayor of the western city of Lviv said on television that it would take months to repair power substations that have been damaged.

Ukraine had so far shot down a total of 233 Iranian-made drones used by Russia, including 21 on Wednesday, Zelensky said.

Volunteers work to clean the debris on a site where several houses were destroyed after a Russian attack at a residential area in Zaporizhzhia (AP)

Ukraine accuses Russia of using Iran-made Shahed-136 “kamikaze drones”, which fly to their target and detonate. Iran denies supplying them and the Kremlin also denied using them.

Meanwhile, in the Kharkiv region, government official Roman Semenukha said that while repairs to heating systems were underway around the recently liberated city of Kupiansk, it’s a slow process that first must restore electricity, gas and water.

Regional authorities in Kharkiv also are assessing the need for firewood, Besedin said, adding that warming shelters will be set up and authorities would offer to evacuate those who want to leave for the winter.

Using energy supplies as a weapon is not a new tactic for the Kremlin, particularly when it comes to Ukraine.

Ukrainian workers repair damaged heating communications of damaged residential buildings in Kharviv (EPA)

Hanna Shelest, the director of security programmes at Foreign Policy Council Ukrainian Prism, based in Kyiv, said: “Energy was always quite a holy cow for the Russians, and they claim that by controlling energy they can control the country.”

Putin, who declared martial law in four illegally annexed regions of Ukraine, has used his ability to turn off the gas that passes through the country’s extensive, Soviet-era pipeline as leverage.

His tactic has been used not just against the government in Kyiv, but also against energy-dependent nations in Europe, who built pipelines via the North Sea for Russian gas.

Under its new strategy, the Russian military hopes to destroy enough of Ukraine‘s infrastructure to make life so intolerable that residents will blame their own government, Ms Shelest said.