Repeated Russian attacks, bad weather knock out power to more than 500 settlements in seven regions – Energy ministry

As a result of the enemy's repeated attacks on energy infrastructure facilities, consumers in the Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk and Zaporizhia regions are without electricity, First Deputy Minister of Energy of Ukraine Artem Nekrasov said at a briefing on Thursday.

"Emergency restoration work continues wherever the security situation allows," he said.

In addition, due to adverse weather conditions, more than 500 settlements in the Odesa, Vinnytsia, Mykolaiv, Kyiv, Chernihiv, Cherkasy and Kirovohrad regions remain without electricity. Repair teams of the regional energy company are working around the clock to restore damaged lines.

According to Nekrasov, the situation remains most difficult in frontline and border regions, where the restoration of electricity supply is complicated by constant hostilities.

"There is still a capacity shortage in Kyiv and Kyiv region. The distribution system operator in the capital applies temporary schedules taking into account the available amount of available capacity," he noted.

Currently, hourly outage schedules are in effect throughout the country, as well as capacity restrictions for industry and business. Emergency outages are additionally applied in several regions. As explained by the Ministry of Energy, such decisions are forced and necessary to preserve the integrity of the power system. The main reason for the current forced outages is the consequences of night shelling of Ukrainian power plants and substations of the electricity transmission and distribution systems.