As of Monday afternoon, four areas – Lviv, Poltava, Sumy and Kharkiv – were without power, officials said. In Kharkiv, trolleybuses, buses and electric trams have stopped. Trams going west from Kyiv never leave the station. In total, 11 infrastructure locations were reported to be affected.
Ihor Terekhov, mayor of Kharkiv, said: “Today, the enemy is testing us. “The invader vents his anger on the civilians.”
Ukrainian officials said they would use power cuts to avoid overloading backup power lines, and warned residents to prepare for power outages.
By Monday evening, electricity was reconnected to most of Kharkiv, the State Emergency Service announced in a Facebook post. Andriy Sadovyi, the city’s mayor, said in a Twitter post that power has also been restored to most of Lviv and all residents should expect water in the morning.
Most of the targets are infrastructure responsible for providing heat and electricity to civilians, said Arestovych, an adviser to Zelensky. Ukraine’s military, he said, would not be affected. “They don’t count on the regular grid,” he said. “They have generators, their own means of producing electricity.”
The tactic of trying to subdue the Ukrainians is not new. The Kremlin has for years studied Ukraine’s energy networks and has sought to manipulate prices or cut natural gas supplies to influence politics. Twice before, Russia cut off natural gas supplies to Ukraine in the middle of winter.
Now, it is pursuing the same goal with bombs.
This approach may not force the Ukrainians to the bargaining table, experts say.
