In the near future, Russia will attack the Ukrainian energy system again, and we must be prepared to defend it. This statement was made by the Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal during an hour of questions to the government in the Verkhovna Rada on Friday, 6 September, reports Komersant ukrainskyi
.
“We already know the intelligence that the next massive missile and drone strikes on our power system are being prepared. Accordingly, we have already lost 9 gigawatts, which is half of the pre-war electricity consumption,” Shmyhalsaid.
According to the Prime Minister, if there had been no Russian strikes, autumn and winter could have been passed without blackouts.
He also added that Ukraine is currently working to create a decentralised energy generation system. In addition, there is a dialogue on expanding the capacity to import electricity from 1.7 to 2.2 GW of installed capacity.
Lights in Ukraine in winter: what experts predict
According to the Disinformation Counteraction Centre, under an optimistic scenario, Ukrainians will have electricity for 12 hours in winter. This is if most nuclear power units are in operation, the winter is mild, and the power industry restores half of the damaged capacity.
There is also a more pessimistic outlook. If only a third of the capacity is restored, the winter will be frosty and Russia will continue to attack our energy sector. Then we will have electricity for only 4 hours.