KYIV, Jan 23 (Reuters) – Ukraine’s energy situation “significantly” worsened on Friday after recent Russian air attacks, triggering emergency power outages in most regions, Kyiv’s grid operator said.
The grim assessment followed a remark by Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal on Thursday that Ukraine’s energy system had endured its most difficult day since a widespread blackout in November 2022, when Russia began bombing the power grid.
Moscow has stepped up airstrikes in recent weeks, further damaging already battered infrastructure and leaving large numbers of the population without power and heating during a subzero cold snap.
Several power generation facilities are undergoing emergency repairs as a result of the combined drone and missile attacks, Ukrenergo said on the Telegram messaging app.
“The equipment is operating at the limits of its capabilities,” it said, adding that power blocks were carrying a “tremendous” overload due to earlier damage from Russian strikes.
Speaking to Reuters on Friday, Maxim Timchenko, CEO of Ukraine’s top private energy firm said the situation was “close to a humanitarian catastrophe” and that any future peace deal between Russia and Ukraine must include a halt to attacks on energy infrastructure.
Ukrainian and Russian negotiators are meeting in Abu Dhabi on Friday and Saturday for U.S.-brokered trilateral talks aimed at moving toward a resolution to the nearly four-year-old war.
The European Commission said on Friday it would send 447 emergency generators worth 3.7 million euros ($4.3 million) to restore power to Ukrainian hospitals, shelters and critical services, after President Volodymyr Zelenskiy declared an energy emergency last week.
In its statement, Ukrenergo said it hoped repairs would be completed in “the near future”, which would enable a return to planned outages.
Ukraine’s energy grid relies almost entirely on electricity produced by nuclear power plants, and has already lost half of its generating capacity.
(Reporting by Yuliia Dysa; writing by Dan Peleschuk and Anna Pruchnicka; editing by Daniel Flynn and Mark Heinrich)
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