Ukrenergo CEO says it will take weeks to recover from massive Russian attack

After a massive Russian attack, it will take weeks to restore Ukraine's power system, the head of the board of the national energy company said "Ukrenergo Vitaliy Zaichenko on the air of the telethon.

"Unfortunately, now the blackouts in most regions of Ukraine last not up to eight hours, but probably up to twelve or even sixteen hours. Eight hours was yesterday. Today, we would have just such schedules – from four to eight hours (if there was no new Russian attack – Ed.)," the official said.

However, he added, due to the occupants' attacks, the duration of outages has increased, and power crews are working to improve the situation.

"But the situation is quite difficult [...] We are not talking about days, we are talking about weeks when we will need to recover," Zaichenko said.

According to him, the only way to improve the situation is to change the behavior of consumers, who can help the power industry by reducing electricity use to "the lowest possible level."

"[It is necessary] to leave only the most economical appliances and use the most energy-intensive ones (those that consume the most electricity – Ed.) at night or when they [consumers] see that the weather is sunny," the official explained.

In addition, he said that during the occupiers' attack, the generation facilities of a private energy holding were damaged DTEK, as well as many Ukrenergo substations: "The enemy used more than 700 munitions [against] the power system. Thanks to the Armed Forces, most of these weapons were intercepted, but a lot of them still reached their target."

Zaichenko also commented capacity reduction of nuclear power plants due to strikes on substations. According to him, "some power has been raised," but it will not be possible to restore full generation at nuclear power plants in the near future.

• On the night of December 6, the Russians once again massively attacked Ukraine, launching 51 missiles and 653 drones – the defenders managed to counteract 30 missiles and 585 UAVs. At the same time there were the shelling and falling debris caused injuries.
• It was an eighth massive missile and drone attack on the Ukrainian energy system since the beginning of the year. Suburban railways were also targeted, with the main station building in Fastiv burned down.
• Ukrenergo reported that on December 7 it is planned to from three to four queues power outages.
• Meanwhile, Moldova has asked Romania for emergency assistance regarding electricity.