Ukraine regions cut energy consumption after Russian strikes on grid
Chief of Ukrainian national energy operator Ukrenergo says that energy consumption in many regions in Ukraine was reduced to up to 20% after Russian strikes on the power grids caused major damage to energy infrastructure.
Following Russian strikes targeting Ukrainian power plants, several regions in Ukraine are reducing electricity consumption by up to 20% according to national energy operator Ukrenergo.
Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, head of Ukrenergo, stated to AFP, "We are grateful to both people, who have reduced their consumption at home, and to businesses, who are doing the same in their offices and workplaces. We see savings in different regions and on different days the level of voluntary consumption reduction ranges from five to 20 percent on average."
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Kudrytskyi added that the energy company must turn to "forced restrictions", since the reduction in energy consumption, while in "significant volumes" compared to Ukraine's energy system, was not sufficient in areas that "suffered the most damage" to its infrastructure," claiming that the Russian strikes were "the largest attack on an energy system in European history."
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"Depending on the degree of the damage after the shelling, it is possible to restore power supply within a period of several hours to a day," Kudrytskyi said.
Russia targeted Ukraine with precision strikes against its infrastructure in response to the bombing operation that destroyed part of the Crimean Bridge, which Russia blamed Ukraine for carrying out. Russian Investigative Committee confirmed that three people died in the blast on the Crimean Bridge.
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Russia also accused Ukraine of launching 3 attacks on the Kursk nuclear power plant in Russia, 85 km from the Ukrainian border, in addition to attempts to strike the TurkStream gas pipeline which passes through the Black Sea to Turkey.