With Two to Four Hours of Electricity Daily, Ukrainians Could Face Prolonged Power Outages Amid Russian Attacks

Due to renewed Russian shelling of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, residents of the country are likely to face prolonged electricity outages by winter, as reported by the Financial Times citing inside sources.

“One Ukrainian government official described Saturday’s strike (June 1 — ed.) as 'devastating, ' while another noted that residents will probably spend most of the day without electricity until winter,” says the report.

Russia’s first air bombing campaign in the winter of 2022-2023 targeted the country’s power grid, which officials and experts say was relatively easy to restore.

But the latest strikes have focused on thermal and hydroelectric power plants, which will be much more difficult and expensive to repair, rebuild or replace.

It was previously reported that Russia has already destroyed 9.2 GW of Ukrainian generation.

In addition to increasing electricity imports from the EU from 1.7 GW to 2.4 GW and putting more gas-fired power plants into operation, the Ukrainian government will have to further raise tariffs, says Borys Dodonov, head of the Center for Energy and Climate Research at the Kyiv School of Economics.

“If no action is taken, according to our modeling, the population is likely to have only two to four hours of electricity [per day] in January,” Dodonov said.

Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal says the consequences of Russian attacks on the country’s energy are long-term, and therefore power supply restrictions will be a part of everyday life in the coming years.