KYIV, Ukraine — As they struggle to maintain a power grid badly damaged by Russian missiles, officials in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv say they have begun planning for an impossible possibility. Imagine: a complete power outage that forced about three people in the city to evacuate. million remaining residents.
The situation is already dire, with 40% of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure damaged or destroyed, city workers are setting up 1,000 heating bunkers that can double as bunkers while engineers Try to repair the bombed power station without the necessary equipment.
To try to keep the power grid from being completely damaged, Ukraine’s national energy agency said on Saturday that it would continue to impose uninterruptible power outages in seven regions.
The enormous strain on Ukraine’s energy supply is the result of Russian forces’ widespread bombardment of critical energy infrastructure across the country, a tactic that analysts say. Legend has it that Russian President Vladimir Putin applied when his army suffered many defeats. battlefield.
The damage inflicted by the Russian air strikes has inflicted new damage on Ukrainian civilians and forced officials to consider the possibility that further damage could render them unable to provide basic services. .
“We understand that if Russia continues such attacks, we could lose the entire electrical system,” Roman Tkachuk, the security chief of the Kyiv city government, said in an interview.
Officials in the capital have been told they are likely to receive notice at least 12 hours later that the grid is about to fail. If it gets to that point, Mr Tkachuk said, “we will start notifying people and asking them to leave.”
For now, at least, the situation is manageable and there is no indication that large numbers of civilians are fleeing Kyiv, he said. But that would change quickly if the city’s power-dependent services were to shut down.
“If there was no electricity, there would be no water and no sewage,” he said. “That’s why right now the government and city authorities are taking all possible measures to protect our power supply system.”
As winter approaches, the city is preparing 1,000 heating bunkers that could also protect civilians from Russian missiles. Most are inside educational institutions, but authorities have asked not to report their exact locations to avoid them becoming easy targets.
At one school, the basement was filled with bottled water; makeshift classrooms have been erected; and a fire truck was stationed just outside the auditorium. Across the hallway with a pile of disaster kits is a stark reminder of what the school used to be: a large poster of Minnie Mouse.
When Russia launched its latest salvo of more than 50 cruise missiles on Monday, most were shot down, Ukrainian officials said. But the things that pass through power plants and substations, immediately deprive thousands of people of power.
On Friday, another Russian strike hit a facility run by a company that distributes electricity to people’s homes. The company said it was the 12th energy facility to be mined in the last month.
Across the city, engineers are working to repair damaged electrical infrastructure, though there’s no easy way to get the hundreds of millions of dollars worth of equipment they need to fully restore. whole network. To reduce damage from future attacks, they protected the generating stations with explosive walls.
Ukraine’s national electricity company, Ukrenergo, on Saturday confirmed the need for continued power outages, saying it was necessary to “reduce the load on the networks, ensure a sustainable balance of the power system and avoid accidents.” repeated after the power grid was damaged by Russian missiles and drone attacks. “
The company said the cuts would affect Kyiv and the regions around it as well as the regions of Chernihiv, Cherkasy, Kharkiv, Poltava, Sumy and Zhytomyr.
Ukraine’s Western allies have stepped up their commitment to provide the country with more air defense systems. But getting them into place is a challenge, and opposition to the aid effort is simmering in the West as many countries face their own economic difficulties.
But the leaders of the United States and Europe have so far remained unmoved.
On Friday, President Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said on a visit to Kyiv Washington’s support for Ukraine remains strong and that aid will continue to pour in after the midterm elections.
“I am confident that the US support for Ukraine will be firm and unwavering,” Mr. Sullivan told reporters in a conference room filled with sandbags at the presidential office.
Underlining that commitment Friday, however, was an announcement by the Department of Defense that it was creating a new command to oversee how the United States and its allies train and equip the military. Ukraine.
It also announced a new $400 million package of security assistance, bringing the total $18.9 billion in military assistance the United States has committed to Ukraine since the Russian invasion on February 24. .
The Pentagon’s new commitments show that the United States expects the threat Russia poses to Ukraine and its neighbors to persist for many years, current and former senior US officials said.
Also on Saturday, Iran’s foreign minister acknowledged for the first time that his country had sent armed drones to Russia, although he said they were delivered before Moscow invaded Ukraine. .
Throughout the war, but especially in recent weeks, Russia has used Iranian-made drones to carry out deadly attacks that devastated Ukrainian cities, according to Ukrainian officials. and the West.
Iran has denied sending drones to Russia for use in Ukraine, and the Kremlin has denied using Iranian drones to attack civilians. However, international calls for accountability have grown as Russia repeatedly carries out deadly attacks.
The European Union and Britain have imposed new sanctions on Iran over attack drones, and the United States is considering its own sanctions over those already imposed. used because of the fear of nuclear weapons.
According to Iranian state mediaIran’s Foreign Minister, Hossein Amir Amirabdollahian, has denied accusations from Western nations that Iran has supplied Russia with drones for use in Ukraine.
The deliveries in question took place several months before the invasion, said Mr. He did not give any details on the types or numbers of drones on offer.
The statement appears to be an attempt to shield Iran from even greater sanctions from Western nations than those that have weakened its economy.
But it is unlikely to drastically change the perception in Western capitals that Iran supports the Russian war effort.
Current and former US officials have said that Iran has sending trainers to Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine to help Russian warplanes operate the drones. Such cooperation underscores how relations between Iran and Russia have grown stronger as the Kremlin seeks to offset international isolation.
Iran has said it will not provide military equipment to any side in the Ukraine conflict, but has previously confirmed that the drone deal with Russia is part of the deal. a military agreement that predates the invasion of Ukraine.
Marc Santora reported from Kyiv, Ukraine and Ben Hubbard from Istanbul. Report contributed by Dan Bilefsky in Montreal, Andrew E. Kramer in Kyiv, Cassandra Vinograd in London, Eric Schmitt and Helene Cooper in Washington and Edward Wong in Münster, Germany.
