KYIV, Ukraine — As they struggle to maintain an electricity grid heavily
By mid-November, nearly half of the country''s power grid had been disabled,
German''s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock speaks to Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko during official visit to a thermal power plant which was destroyed by a Russian rocket attack in Ukraine, Tuesday, May 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
A man looks on fragments of a Russian rocket that hit a thermal power plant in Ukraine, Tuesday, May 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, second from left, speaks to Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko during official visit to a thermal power plant which was destroyed by a Russian rocket attack in Ukraine, Tuesday, May 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
German''s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko look on fragments of Russian rocket during official visit to a thermal power plant which was destroyed by a Russian rocket attack in Ukraine, Tuesday, May 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Sustained Russian attacks on Ukraine''s power grid in recent 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, though, 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 hadn''t experienced them since the first year of the war. Among the strikes were an April barrage that damaged Kyiv''s largest thermal power plant and a massive attack on May 8 that targeted power generation and transmission facilities in several regions.
Entire apartment blocks in the capital went dark. The city''s military administration said at least 10% of consumers were disconnected.
For many, it is a taste of what might be in store if Ukraine doesn''t find other electricity sources before winter.
Before dawn Wednesday, a Russian drone attack on Sumy plunged the northern Ukraine city into darkness. Some power was restored to the city of around a quarter-million people in the morning as crews rushed to repair the damage, local authorities said.
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, Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko explained. 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 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?" the minister asked.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock''s 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 will come in July and August, when consumption due to summer heat can mirror levels in the sub-freezing winter months, the minister said.
By mid-May, Kyiv''s residents began 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 can''t 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.
The plan for winter is to restore power generation as much as possible, said Harkavyi. How that will happen isn''t clear, he conceded: "The situation is already too difficult."
Ukraine is hoping to acquire parts from long-decommissioned German plants. Harkavyi said Ukrainian teams recently went to Germany to evaluate the equipment, which was taken offline because it doesn''t meet European Union environmental standards. It remains to be seen how willing European allies will be to invest in Ukraine''s coal-fueled energy sector given their own greener goals.
"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."
Follow AP''s war coverage at https://apnews /hub/russia-ukraine
More than 700,000 homes and businesses were without power across a frigid Ukraine early Thursday afterRussia launched a widespread missile and drone attackon the country''s energy sector.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said the "complex strike" was a retaliation for Ukraine using American-made ATACMS missiles to strike inside Russia. Despite the widespread civilian impact, he claimed, without evidence, that the assault targeted military sites.
Air raid sirens began to ring out late Wednesday night and blared for more than nine hours. People across the country took refuge in bomb shelters, subway stations and even their own bathrooms, waiting out the bombardment alongside strollers, pets and what little blankets they could carry.
Targeting the power grid comes just as cold weather begins to bite, a tactic that Ukrainian officials and Western analysts say Russia deliberately deploys. The temperature is forecast to stay below 35 degrees Fahrenheit all of Thursday, with fog in the air and snow already covering Kyiv''s roofs.
"It was about 6 a.m. I was sleeping and heard a very loud explosion in my dream," said Valeria Grinchuk, 24, a make-up artist in the city of Lutsk. "I just ran into the corridor with my cats and immediately heard two more explosions," at which point the power went out, she added.
"I couldn''t see what was on the news and so didn''t know what to expect," she said. Valeria has a gas stove and says "we''ve gotten used to it a little" but describes the conditions as "very uncomfortable."
The physical discomfort of these outages is compounded by the uncertainty ofPresident-elect Donald Trump''s looming inauguration Jan. 20. His reluctance to commit support for Ukraine brings a huge degree of uncertainty to the conflict, just asRussia is making its fastest battlefield gainssince the early days of the 2022 invasion.
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