In addition, the weather forecast shows that the weather conditions will not improve in the coming days and night temperatures from -17 to -19 degrees Celsius are expected in Kyiv in the coming days.
Klyčko also called on city residents who have the opportunity to temporarily leave their apartments and take refuge in places where there are alternative sources of energy and heat to do so.
Currently, 417,000 people are without electricity, says the director of Yasno, which is one of the electricity suppliers in Ukraine. According to him, the most complicated situation is on the left bank of the Dnieper River.
Attacks on power plants and boiler houses
According to the director of energy and infrastructure programs at the Razumkov Center, Volodymyr Omelychenko, the main targets of the Russian attack were once again the large Kiev thermal power plants and also five local boiler plants.
“The strategy of the Russians is clear – to let as many civilians as possible freeze during the frost. This is how they understand the victory of their army of terrorists and the size of the mother Russians. With the same goal, the Orešniks attacked the underground gas reservoirs in the Lviv region, we are talking about the largest underground gas reservoir Bilče-Volycke,” .
At the same time, Omeľchenko drew attention to the fact that the situation in the energy system is worsened by frost on parts of the power lines that transmit electricity to the Kyiv region.
“The only thing that our government never limits when it comes to electricity supplies is the Druzhba pipeline, which pumps Russian oil to Slovakia and Hungary every day to help Mr. Fico and Orbán block aid to Ukraine and supplement the Russian military budget. The Druzhba pipeline requires an estimated output of 100 MW – which is the need of all medical facilities in Ukraine,” commented the expert.
How long will there be no heating?
In connection with the shutdown of the heating, there were also concerns about a longer shutdown of heat in Kyiv, as residents of apartment buildings in which the heating stopped working after the Russian attacks registered the discharge of water from the heating system.
“Draining the water is a forced step: without it, the pipeline will simply burst and the heating system will be completely destroyed. For us, it means one thing: in a few days, hundreds of thousands of people will not be able to stay in their own apartments,” Ukrainian activist Marija Berlinska wrote in this regard.
However, the Kyiv city administration subsequently explained that this is a standard procedure during repair work and serves to protect pipes from damage that could be caused by frost.
“Draining the water does not mean that the heat will be absent for a long time, this procedure is used even when the shutdown may last several hours or a day – this is a safety requirement,” .
Electricity could be restored by the evening
According to some experts, heat could return to Kyiv households today.
“I want to believe that in the course of the day the heating will be working for the majority of Kyivites. The left bank is being restored faster. On the right bank, the situation may be more complicated,” said Oleksandr Kharchenko, director of the Center for Energy Research.
He also noted that by the evening the workers of the energy companies could gradually restore the supply of electricity.
“Judging by the preliminary assessment, there is no super-critical damage that threatens to be catastrophic. Recovery is already underway, but it is clear that in the weather as it is now, it will be a relatively slow process physically,” he said.
We remind you that the Russians attacked with 36 rockets and ballistic missiles and more than 240 drones of various types on the night from Thursday to Friday. The Russian attack was primarily directed at Kyiv, claiming four lives, including the life of a paramedic.
