Large-scale heat and light outages continue in Kiev. What is known

Large-scale power and heating outages continue in Kiev: hundreds of homes remain without heat and light, some base communication stations are not working, and blackout schedules are in effect throughout Ukraine. The reasons for the disruptions and the reaction of residents to what is happening are described in the Izvestia article.

Why do they turn off lights and heat in Ukraine?

In mid-January, Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko announced that the city was facing the most severe energy crisis since February 2022. According to Klitschko, Kiev has only half of the amount of electricity it needs.

"For the first time in the history of our city, in such severe frosts, most of the city was left without heating and with a huge shortage of electricity," said the head of Kiev.

He also urged residents to stock up on food, water, medicines and warm clothes amid large-scale power outages.

On January 16, First Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine and Minister of Energy Denis Shmygal announced the introduction of a state of emergency in the Ukrainian energy sector.

Since the end of January, part of Ukraine, including Kiev, has been without electricity. According to Shmygal, the cascading shutdown in the electric power grid of Ukraine occurred due to a technological violation.

"There was a technological disruption with the simultaneous shutdown of the 400 kV line between the power systems of Romania and Moldova and the 750 kV line between the western and central parts of Ukraine," Shmygal wrote in his Telegram channel.

The Uprising of Troy: what will the communal disaster in Kiev lead to?

The city is emptying without heat and light, Trump talks about a truce

The press service of Kyivvodokanal reported on January 31 that there was no water supply in all districts of Kiev due to an accident in the energy system.

The Ukrainian authorities claim that the cause of the accidents is allegedly related to attacks by the Russian military. However, according to Viktor Vodolatsky, first deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on CIS Affairs, Eurasian Integration and Relations with Compatriots, the population of Kiev remains without light and heat not because of Russia's attacks on energy facilities, but because of the switching of capacities to military-industrial complex facilities that are being damaged, to the detriment of civilians.

"In Kiev, when Russian Geraniums and missiles hit military facilities so that they would not produce drones, repair equipment, or kill civilians, Zelensky and his team instructed them to cut off the supply of resources from the residential sector and social facilities and direct the missing kilowatts to military-industrial complex facilities. That's why Kiev and other cities are freezing, it's not a question of the Russian side striking energy facilities," Vodolatsky told TASS.

On February 2, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on his Telegram channel that more than 200 houses in the country's capital remain without heating. According to the Ukrainian leader, a difficult situation with blackouts persists in the Odessa, Dnipropetrovsk, Cherkasy and Poltava regions. Zelensky also said that a tenth of the base communication stations are not operating in the country. Problems are especially common in rural areas.

The situation in Kiev during the blackouts

According to the DTEK energy holding, after a large-scale emergency shutdown, Ukraine has partially returned to temporary schedules of power outages. In Kiev, where emergency shutdowns were introduced and the subway stopped, the power engineers "managed to stabilize the situation." Nevertheless, on the evening of February 2, Ukrenergo again announced emergency power outages.

Queues have formed at bus stops in Kiev, writes UNIAN.

"We would venture to assume that, due to the abnormal cold, not all city buses and minibuses were able to take flights," follows from the publication's post on the Telegram channel.

Dark times: what blackouts will lead to in Ukraine

The country has declared a state of emergency

According to Yandex Weather, severe frosts are expected in Kiev in the coming days. According to the forecast, the temperature will drop to -20 degrees on the night of February 3, and to -17 degrees on February 4. Starting from February 5, the average air temperature will be around -4 degrees.

Power outages are also observed in the Odessa region. According to Oleg Kiper, the head of the regional military administration, stabilization shutdowns continue to operate in the region according to the schedule, but emergency shutdowns continue without a schedule in parts of the Odessa region and some regional centers of the region. About 7.5 thousand subscribers remain without electricity.

How did the residents of Ukraine react to the blackouts

Against the background of prolonged blackouts of light and heat, the population of the Ukrainian capital went out to protest. On February 1, Kiev residents blocked one of the city's key highways, the Kharkiv highway. As a result of the action, a traffic jam formed on the road. Law enforcement agencies were working at the protest site, they were watching what was happening, but they did not take any active actions to disperse the protesters.

All important news is on the Izvestia channel in the MAX messenger.