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Kyiv’s water and heating systems were back on after being briefly shut down amid intense cold in the Ukrainian capital on Saturday, as engineers scrambled to stabilize a power grid brought to the brink by a campaign of Russian strikes this week.
Attacks on Friday “have resulted in significant civilian casualties and deprived millions of Ukrainians of essential services, including electricity, heating and water at a time of acute humanitarian need,” said Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for the United Nations Secretary General.
Russia has regularly conducted intense bombardments of Ukraine’s energy system since it invaded its neighbour on Feb. 24, 2022, causing multi-hour daily blackouts in major cities.
Heat and water infrastructure have also been heavily affected in recent weeks, an increasing concern with temperatures already well below freezing and set to plunge further in the coming week.
The city administration said around noon local time on Saturday that the state grid operator Ukrenergo had ordered Kyiv’s power system to be shut down and that the water and heating systems, as well as electrified public transport, would stop working as a result.
A Kyiv senior citizen asks why ‘the whole world can’t rein in one man,’ in a reference to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Less than an hour later, Ukrenergo said engineers had managed to remedy the immediate issue, which had been caused by damage from previous Russian strikes, and that power was coming back online in parts of Kyiv.
Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said the heating system, which in Ukrainian cities is centralized and pumps hot water to homes in pipes, was also coming back on and that she expected heat supply to be fully restored on Saturday.
However, she said that the power situation in the capital was still difficult, as the grid was badly damaged and people were using more electric heaters because of the cold.
On Friday, about 6,000 of Kyiv’s apartment blocks were left without heating after the latest Russian missile and drone attack, as bitter cold set in. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said half of those blocks had heat supply restored by Saturday before it was shut off again due to the power grid problem.
Ukraine striking back, Russia also facing blackout
The governor of Russia’s Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, said on Saturday that 600,000 residents were without electricity, heating and water after a Ukrainian missile strike.
In a statement posted on the Telegram messaging service, Vyacheslav Gladkov said that work was underway to restore supplies but that the situation was “extremely challenging.”
Footage filmed by Reuters in the city of Belgorod showed streetlights extinguished and locals finding their way using hand-held torches and car headlights.
Belgorod region, which adjoins Ukraine’s Kharkiv region and had a pre-war population of 1.5 million, has come under regular attack from Kyiv’s forces since Russia ordered tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022.
Temperatures in most of Russia and Ukraine have been well below freezing in recent days.
Oil depot in Volgograd targeted, officials say
A Ukrainian drone strike sparked a fire at an oil depot in Russia’s southern Volgograd region, regional authorities said on Saturday.
There were no immediate reports of casualties, regional Gov. Andrei Bocharov was quoted as saying in a Telegram post published on the channel of the local administration. The post did not specify the damage but said that people living near the depot may have to be evacuated.
Russia has used a new hypersonic missile to strike western Ukraine in a clear warning to Kyiv’s NATO allies. It’s only the second time the missile has been used in the nearly four-year-old war. CBC’s Briar Stewart explains.
Ukraine’s long-range drone strikes on Russian energy sites aim to deprive Moscow of the oil export revenue it needs to pursue its full-scale invasion.
Russia wants to cripple the Ukrainian power grid, seeking to deny civilians access to heat, light and running water in what Kyiv officials say is an attempt to “weaponize winter.”
Saturday’s attack came the day after Russia bombarded Ukraine with hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles overnight into Friday, according to Ukrainian officials, killing at least four people in the capital.
Separately, Russia fired a powerful hypersonic missile at a target in Ukraine near the border with NATO-member Poland this week, in what Kyiv’s European allies on Friday described as an attempt to intimidate them from supporting Ukraine.
