Working to restore power

Zelensky says government is working to restore power supplies across Ukraine

Julia Kesaieva and Victoria Butenko

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky posted an image of a meeting he’s holding with officials to discuss restoring communications and energy supply after the latest wave of Russian strikes, saying in a post on Telegram that the “enemy has damaged our energy infrastructure, but now we are doing everything necessary to quickly restore electricity supply.”

“The infrastructure that provides mobile communication was not damaged. In some places, there were interruptions due to lack of power supply,” Zelensky said.

“It is important to reduce electricity consumption from 5 to 10 pm. This will ease the load on our power grid and reduce the need for emergency outages,” he said. 

“We are holding on. We are working. We are united,” he continued.

At the same time, Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmygal said that dozens of missiles had hit energy infrastructure in 11 regions and the capital city of Kyiv. “Power supply has been disrupted in almost the whole of Ukraine. Eight regions suffer water supply problems,” he said.

“Preliminary data shows most of the energy facilities will be reconnected today. The rest will start working tomorrow,” he said.

“Power is back in Sumy already. We are on the way in Zhytomyr and Kharkiv. Emergency schedule of turning the power off is in place in Kyiv and Kyiv region, Chernigiv, Cherkassy and Zhytomyr regions,” Shmygal said.