Ukraine’s Energy Minister Svitlana Hrynchuk spoke on the “United News” telemarathon about the current state of the country’s energy system following another massive Russian attack.
According to her, Ukraine’s energy infrastructure was targeted by a large-scale ballistic strike.
“Last night was one of the hardest nights since the beginning of the full-scale war. The enemy launched a massive attack specifically with ballistic missiles, which are extremely difficult to intercept. It’s hard to recall such a number of direct strikes on energy facilities since the start of the invasion,” the Minister emphasized.
She noted that due to significant damage, the transmission system operator was forced to implement emergency and special blackout schedules in the Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Poltava, Chernihiv, and Sumy regions. Later, it was possible to partially stabilize the system and switch the regions to hourly blackout schedules.
“In the affected regions—Kharkiv, Poltava, and Kyiv—we, together with our deputies and local authorities, are coordinating the deployment of alternative power sources and small modular boiler stations,” Hrynchuk said.
The Minister also stressed that the use of blackout schedules is a forced and necessary measure to carry out repairs, restart equipment, and stabilize the energy system.
She added that restoration work is complicated by ongoing air raid alerts and the risk of repeated attacks, which sometimes requires temporarily halting repair crews for safety reasons. Nevertheless, energy workers, rescuers, and all involved services act immediately as soon as conditions allow work to continue.
Svitlana Hrynchuk also noted that reserve equipment is available in sufficient quantities to replace damaged infrastructure. Its installation and switching take time and care, but all services are acting as quickly and coordinately as possible to restore electricity and heat to Ukrainians as soon as possible.
