Viktor Bout says he “wholeheartedly” supports the Ukraine war and will volunteer to fight for Russia
Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said that as Ukraine grapples with an energy crisis, the country will have to set priorities for electricity supply.
“The top priority is critical infrastructure, especially water and heat facilities and hospitals,” Shmyhal said at a government meeting. “The second priority is the military-industrial complex — facilities that operate to protect the state. The principle, ‘All for the front line’, is absolutely unchanged.”
The third priority, he said, is businesses that make essential products – bakeries and dairy factories, for example. And residential area ranked fourth.
Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, CEO of the state-owned power generation company Ukrenergo, said repair work was still continuing after Russia’s last missile strike on Monday.
Kudrytskyi said substations in southern Ukraine and power plants were damaged.
“Some power plants have been forced to stop generating power following the damage. We are now gradually trying to restore power output at thermal power plants, to bring them back to pre-attack levels.”
Since October 10, more than 1,000 heavy rockets and drones have been fired at energy infrastructures, Kudrytskyi said. The main difficulties for electricity supply today are in the Odesa region, the Kherson region and the Kharkiv region.
Nuclear production has provided more than half of Ukraine’s needs in recent times, but Kudrytskyi said the country needs other types of energy production.
“There is not a single thermal power plant in Ukraine that has not been damaged by the attacks,” he said. “Similarly, almost all hydroelectric power plants are damaged and power generation capacity is limited.”
He said as the repair work continues, he hopes the country can move to a planned power cut in the next few days. Much of Ukraine has also experienced emergency power cuts in recent weeks.
Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said Russia could target more infrastructure and energy supplies could also be affected by heavy frosts.
“Ukraine has received energy equipment worth millions of euros. Our task today is not only to use the equipment for a quick recovery, but also to build a stockp of equipment that may be urgently needed after the next shelling. follow,” he said.
