By Max Hunder
KYIV (Reuters) – Ukraine urged civilians on Tuesday not to use domestic appliances like ovens and washing machines to save electricity as millions faced blackouts after the biggest Russian attack on its energy network since war broke out.
Authorities are trying to repair the damage after Russia fired missiles at energy facilities across Ukraine on Monday, causing widespread power outages and prompting Kyiv to announce it was halting electricity exports.
The Kyiv capital region began rolling power cuts to save energy, but repairs of the grid in the western city of Lviv were set back by a new Russian missile strike that left 30% of the population there without power.
The government said residents of 300 settlements in the Kyiv region and a similar number in the Lviv region had woken on Tuesday to find they had no electricity. A further 200 settlements in the northeastern Sumy region and over 100 in the Ternopil region of western Ukraine were also without power.
But Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Ukrainians had voluntarily cut their electricity consumption by an average of 10% on Monday after Russia’s attacks, and urged them to limit use between 5 p.m. (1400 GMT) and 11 p.m. on Tuesday.
“We are united and will stand firm,” he wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
“Please don’t turn on energy-intensive appliances: electric stoves, electric kettles, power tools, heaters and air conditioners, ovens and irons, microwave ovens, coffee makers, washing machines and dishwashers.”
‘PRIMARY TARGETS’
Ukrainian officials say Russian attacks are now focused on damaging Ukrainian energy infrastructure and sowing fear among civilians. At least 20 people were killed and 108 wounded in Monday’s attacks.
“Primary targets of Russian strikes are energy facilities. They’ve hit many yesterday and they hit the same and new ones today,” Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said, suggesting the aim was to create “unbearable conditions for civilians”.
Russia has denied deliberately targeting civilians since its forces invaded Ukraine in February.
Ukrainian authorities had already been preparing for a grim winter, with the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant- which usually provides about one-fifth of Ukraine’s electricity – in “cold shutdown” after being occupied by Russian forces.
In Lviv, regional governor Maksym Kozytsky said four local electricity substations were now out of action, and would take months to rebuild. Two of them were hit by missiles on Tuesday as well as Monday, he said.
“This is complicated equipment, transformers that we do not have,” he told reporters.
(Reporting by Kyiv newsroom, writing by Timothy Heritage, editing by Matthias Williams and Mark Heinrich)
