Because of Russian attacks on energy infrastructure, Ukrainian authorities have warned residents in Kyiv to expect longer power outages lasting more than four hours.
Rolling blackouts are affecting not only Kyiv but also Ukraine’s central regions, including Dnipro.
According to President Volodymyr Zelensky, approximately four million people have been affected, but “the shelling will not break us.”
This month Russia launched dozens of missiles and Iranian-made drones.
Ukraine’s energy infrastructure is being pounded by the air attacks – Mr Zelensky says about a third of the country’s electric power stations have been destroyed.
The Kyiv region has lost 30% of its power capacity, the private energy company DTEK says, meaning “unprecedented” power cuts will be necessary.
The power cuts have meant curbs on the use of street lights and electric-powered public transport, besides the discomfort in people’s homes.
The EU and other international allies of Kyiv have condemned the deliberate targeting of civilian infrastructure – attacks that Ukraine sees as war crimes.
Ukraine’s second city Kharkiv, heavily damaged by Russian shelling, also faces long power cuts, along with the central cities of Zhytomyr, Poltava and Chernihiv.
Russia stepped up its missile attacks on Ukraine’s power stations and other civilian infrastructure in retaliation for the 9 October bombing of the Kerch Bridge – a key link to Russian-annexed Crimea.
President Vladimir Putin called that blast a Ukrainian “act of terrorism”. The bridge is a symbol of his campaign to incorporate large swathes of Ukraine into Russia.
A power station employee called Pavlo, quoted by AFP news agency, said “we are confronted by such damage for the first time”. The unnamed plant had twice been targeted by missiles and then by an Iranian-made “kamikaze” drone.
He said repairs had been underway for more than two weeks, but “there are difficulties in that the equipment that has been damaged is unique – it’s hard to find the same parts”.
In other developments:
- Russia said it had mobilized 300,000 reservists – the target number set by defence minister Sergei Shoigu. He said 41,000 of those called up had already been deployed to the battlefield in Ukraine
- Russia also said it had completed an operation to move thousands of civilians out of occupied Kherson, ahead of an expected battle with Ukrainian forces for the strategic southern city
- President Zelensky accused Russia of dismantling medical facilities in Kherson – removing “equipment, ambulances, just everything” – and pressurising doctors to move to Russia
- Chechen leader and Putin ally Ramzan Kadyrov admitted that a Chechen unit had suffered “big losses” – 23 fighters killed and 58 wounded in a Ukrainian artillery attack
- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has urged all parties to renew the grain export deal, which is due to expire next month. Russia has suggested it might not renew the deal. The agreement allowed Ukraine to resume exports in the Black Sea which had been blocked when Russia invaded.