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Ukraine restores electricity infrastructure after Russian strikes

26.11.2022 06:00
Over 70 percent of Ukrainian households have been reconnected to the electricity grid, after Russian air strikes on civilian infrastructure that have led to massive power cuts and deprived residents of heat and water on Wednesday.
An invincibility centre in Kyiv, set up to provide electricity, heat, water, medicines, and internet and mobile phone connections.
An "invincibility" centre in Kyiv, set up to provide electricity, heat, water, medicines, and internet and mobile phone connections.Photo: PAP/Vladyslav Musiienko

However, according to Ukrainian authorities the distribution of electricity is still difficult across the country.

The country’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said that “between 200,000 and 400,000 households in each region are left without electricity for a few hours every day.”

“The situation is even more difficult due to bad weather in the Khmelnytskyi, Odessa and Ternopil oblasts,” he added.

Shmyhal also said that in the Kharkiv and Kherson regions “the infrastructure was damaged due to air strikes that lasts for two days, with both planned and emergency power cuts.”

Russia rained missiles on cities across Ukraine on Wednesday, killing at least 10 people, forcing shutdowns of nuclear power plants and cutting water and electricity supplies in many areas, the Reuters news agency reported.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said earlier this week that special shelters with electricity, heat and water would be set up for people across the country as winter weather sets in amid persistent Russian strikes on critical energy infrastructure.

Special "invincibility" centres will be set up around Ukraine to provide electricity, heat, water, medicines, and internet and mobile phone connections free of charge and around the clock, Zelensky said in a video address late on Tuesday,

Zelensky said last week that about 10 million people were without power across the country, with emergency blackouts ordered in some areas after days of heavy Russian bombardment of civilian infrastructure.

Ukraine's Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said this week that some 8,500 power generator sets were being imported to Ukraine daily, according to Reuters.

The World Health Organization warned this week that hundreds of Ukrainian hospitals and healthcare facilities lacked fuel, water and electricity, according to Reuters.

"Ukraine's health system is facing its darkest days in the war so far," Hans Kluge, the WHO regional director for Europe, said in a statement after visiting Ukraine.

"Having endured more than 700 attacks, it is now also a victim of the energy crisis," Kluge added, as quoted by Reuters.