Kyiv, Ukraine. Ukraine’s energy system is meeting only 60% of the country’s electricity needs after Russian drone and missile attacks, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday. Kyiv has declared an energy emergency as the grid faces renewed strikes, bitter cold and nearly four years of accumulated damage.
Electricity supply and demand
Zelenskiy said electricity generation capacity was 11 gigawatts on Thursday, while the country needed 18 gigawatts.
New energy minister appointed
Zelenskiy appointed Denys Shmyhal, a close ally and long-serving former prime minister and defence minister, to lead the energy ministry.
Areas most affected
Shmyhal, speaking publicly for the first time in the role, said the most challenging situations were in the capital Kyiv, the second city Kharkiv, the main port Odesa, and towns near the front line. He said thousands of homes have been unheated and dark for days during a prolonged cold snap with subzero temperatures.
Competing claims over targeting infrastructure
Moscow says Ukraine’s civil infrastructure is a legitimate target because striking it can reduce Kyiv’s ability to wage war. Kyiv says the aim is to harm civilians and break the country’s will.
Damage from recent attacks and winter conditions
Heat and power in the capital have yet to fully recover from a particularly severe attack a week ago. Temperatures were far below typical winter levels, with Kyiv at minus 16 degrees Celsius on Friday morning.
Shmyhal’s assessment in parliament
Shmyhal told parliament that the intensity of Russian attacks was increasing and that strikes were occurring daily. “There is not a single power plant left in Ukraine that the enemy has not attacked,” he said. He added that in some cities and regions winter preparations had failed, and that in his first two days in office he had seen that many things were stalling.
How has the energy emergency affected your daily life in Ukraine?
