Ukraine’s energy consumption has fallen by more than 50 percent after the Russian attacks, power grid operator Ukrenergo said.
Ukraine’s electricity grid operator Ukrenergo has lifted the state of emergency it declared earlier in the day after Russian attacks cut the country’s energy consumption by more than 50 percent, it said in a statement.
A senior Ukrainian official earlier said emergency power shutdowns were being carried out across the country after Russian missiles hit power plants in several regions.
Ukrenergo warned Ukrainians it could take longer to restore power after dozens of Russian missiles were fired at key infrastructure sites in the north, south and center of the country.
“Priority is given to critical infrastructure: hospitals, water supply plants, heat supply plants, sewage treatment plants,” the national energy company said in a statement on Friday.
In one of its biggest attacks since the beginning of the war, Russia sent more than 70 missiles at Ukraine, knocking out power in the second-largest city and forcing Kyiv to implement nationwide emergency power outages, Ukrainian officials said.
Three people were killed when a block of flats in downtown Kryvyi Rih was hit and another died in shelling in the southern Kherson region, they said.
Russian-installed officials in occupied eastern Ukraine said 12 people died from Ukrainian shelling.
In an evening video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia still has enough missiles for several more significant attacks, and he again urged Western allies to provide Kyiv with more and better air defense systems.
Zelenskyy said Ukraine was strong enough to recover. “Whatever the rocket worshipers from Moscow are counting on, it will not change the balance of power in this war,” he said.
Kyiv warned on Thursday that early next year, about a year after its February 24 invasion, Moscow is planning a new major offensive that has seen much of Ukraine destroyed by missiles and artillery but little captured by Russian forces.
Russia has rained missiles on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure on an almost weekly basis since early October after multiple battlefield defeats, but Friday’s attack appeared to do more damage than many as snow and ice are now widespread.
Moscow says the attacks are aimed at crippling Ukraine’s military. Ukrainians call it a war crime.
“They want to destroy us and make us slaves. But we won’t give up. We will persevere,” said Lidiya Vasilieva, 53, as she made her way to seek shelter at a train station in the capital, Kyiv.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said late Friday that only a third of the city’s residents have both heat and water, and 40 percent have electricity. The subway system, a major artery, remained closed, he added.
Zelenskyy urged Ukrainians to be patient and urged regional authorities to be more creative in organizing emergency power supplies.
The north-eastern city of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, was also badly hit, with the attacks crippling electricity, heating and running water. Ukrainian news agency Interfax quoted regional governor Oleh Syniehubov as saying later Friday that 55 percent of the city and 85 percent of the surrounding region had regained electricity.
Liudmyla Kovylko, who cooks at an emergency food distribution center, said life must go on. “We heard explosions, the power went out. people need to be fed. We cook on a wood stove.”