Sustained Russian attacks on Ukraine’s power grid over the past few weeks have forced leaders of the war-ravaged country to institute nationwide rolling blackouts. Without adequate air defenses to counter assaults and allow for repairs, the shortages could still worsen as need spikes in late summer and the bitter-cold winter.
The Russian airstrikes targeting the grid since March have meant blackouts have even returned to the capital, Kyiv, which had not experienced them since the first year of the war. Among the strikes were a barrage that damaged Kyiv’s largest thermal power plant last month, and a massive attack on May 8 that targeted power generation and transmission facilities in several regions.
In all, half of Ukraine’s energy system was damaged, Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba said.
Photo: AP
Entire apartment blocks in the capital went dark. The city’s military administration said at least 10 percent of consumers were disconnected.
For many, it is a taste of what might be in store if Ukraine does not find other electricity sources before winter.
With no end in sight to the attacks on the power grid and without a way to adequately defend against them, there are no quick fixes to the electricity shortages, Ukrainian Minister of Energy Herman Halushchenko said.
Ukraine is appealing to Western allies for more air defense systems and spare parts to fix its Soviet-era plants.
“With each attack we lose additional power generation, so it just goes minus, minus, minus,” Halushchenko said on Tuesday while standing outside a coal-fired plant in central Ukraine that was destroyed in an April 11 attack.
Any efforts to repair the plant would be futile until the military can defend it from another attack.
“Should we repair [power stations] just for them [Russians] to renew strikes while we are unable to defend ourselves?” Halushchenko asked.
German Minister of Foreign Affairs Annalena Baerbock joined him on the plant visit, underscoring Ukraine’s desperation to close the power gap as quickly as possible.
The first major test of the grid would come in July and August, when consumption can mirror levels in the sub-freezing winter months, Halushchenko said.
Kyiv’s residents have begun to feel the consequences of Russia’s attacks. A cold snap drove up consumption, forcing Ukrenergo, the main transmission system operator, to introduce controlled blackouts throughout the country. Ukraine cannot generate enough power to cover evening peaks, and the shortage is greater than the country’s ability to import electricity from Poland, Slovakia and Romania.
The April 11 attack on the plant destroyed generators, transformers and turbines — every necessary part to generate electricity, said Yevhen Harkavyi, the technical director of Centerenergo, which operates the plant.
Five missiles hit the facility that day, and workers were still clearing away rubble on Tuesday as snow-like tufts of poplar cotton fell through a hole in the roof.
The plan for winter is to restore power generation as much as possible, Harkavyi said.
How that would happen is not clear, he said.
“The situation is already too difficult,” he said.
Ukraine is hoping to acquire parts from long-decommissioned German plants.
Ukrainian teams recently went to Germany to evaluate the equipment, which was taken offline because it does not meet EU environmental standards, Harkavyi said.
It remains to be seen how willing European allies would be to invest in Ukraine’s coal-fueled energy sector given their own greener goals.
The teams are still evaluating how to get the equipment back to Ukraine, he said.
“This is the first question,” he said. “The second question is what Ukraine is crying about: We need active protection with air defense systems, and we hope that Mrs Minister [Baerbock] has seen the scale of destruction and will do everything possible to call for help from the whole world.”
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