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Kyiv city authorities warned on Friday that a “complete shutdown” of the capital’s power grid was possible and Ukraine’s prime minister said almost half the country’s energy system had been disabled by Russian attacks.
Russia, which invaded Ukraine in February, has stepped up attacks on Ukrainian energy facilities in recent weeks, and pounded power infrastructure across the country in heavy air strikes on Tuesday and Thursday.
“Unfortunately, Russia continues to carry out missile strikes on Ukraine’s civilian and critical infrastructure,” prime minister Denys Shmyhal said after talks with European trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis. “Almost half of our energy system is disabled.”
Kyiv is one of the cities worst affected by the missile and drone strikes, which have at times knocked out electricity, heating and water in many areas as winter approaches.
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Engineers have been racing to repair the power grid in the capital, which had its first snowfall of the season on Thursday. “We are preparing for different scenarios, including a complete shutdown,” Mykola Povoroznyk, deputy head of the Kyiv city administration, said in televised comments.
He did not say what would happen in the event of the power grid being completely shut down, but officials have said they are not considering evacuating any cities.
Ukraine has denounced the attacks on its energy infrastructure as Russian terrorism. Russia dismisses the criticism and describes the attacks as a response to Kyiv’s “unwillingness” to hold peace talks.
Ukraine’s state grid operator Ukrenergo wrote on Friday that the system was “withstanding the blows with dignity”, but later declared emergency outages in addition to cuts that had already been scheduled top help carry out repairs.
“The enemy has already carried out six large-scale missile attacks: October 10th, October 11th, October 17th, October 31st, November 11th and November 15th,” Ukrenergo said.
[ Russia targets Ukraine’s energy facilities as winter sets in ]
Temperatures across Ukraine have plummeted below zero and there is concern that the situation will become worse in coming months, when temperatures can fall much lower and frosts set in.
“Due to low temperatures, electricity consumption is increasing significantly. Therefore, now, more than ever, we need to save electricity,” Mr Povoroznyk said.
Blackouts have become frequent and the government has urged the public to conserve energy by reducing use of domestic appliances such as ovens, washing machines, electric kettles and irons.
In a separate development, Russia said on Friday that Ukrainian soldiers had executed more than 10 Russian prisoners of war, accusing Kyiv of carrying out war crimes and the West of ignoring them.
The Russian defence ministry cited a video circulating on Russian social media which it said showed the execution of Russian prisoners of war.
“This brutal murder of Russian servicemen is neither the first, nor the only war crime,” the ministry said. “This is common practice in the armed forces of Ukraine that is actively supported by the Kyiv regime and blatantly ignored by its Western patrons.”
There was no immediate response from Kyiv, which has said previously it will investigate any alleged abuses by its armed forces. Ukraine has repeatedly accused Russia of war crimes, which Moscow has denied.
The video shows what appear to be Russian soldiers lying down on the ground in Makiivka, in the Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine, after surrendering to armed men with yellow bands on their arms. Then automatic gunfire rings out and the video shows around 12 bodies. It was unclear when the video was filmed or who filmed it.
[ Zelenskiy outlines his 10-point proposal for peace in Ukraine ]
The Russian defence ministry said the video showed “the deliberate and methodical murder of more than 10 immobilised Russian serviceman by degenerate Ukrainian soldiers”.
It added that the video was a sign of the “atrocious nature” of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his “regime” in Kyiv, and said he would “answer before the court of history and the people of Russia and Ukraine”.
In Sweden, authorities said on Friday that investigators had found traces of explosives at the site of the damaged Nord Stream gas pipelines, and that this confirmed that sabotage had taken place.
Swedish and Danish authorities are investigating four holes in the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines which link Russia and Germany via the Baltic Sea and have become a flashpoint in the Ukraine crisis as gas supplies in Europe run short.
Denmark last month said a preliminary investigation had shown that the leaks were caused by powerful explosions.
“Analysis that has now been carried out shows traces of explosives on several of the objects that were recovered,” the Swedish Prosecution Authority said in a statement, adding that the findings established the incident as “gross sabotage”.
It said the continued investigation would determine whether it would be possible to identify those responsible. – Reuters