“The worst is long past”: Ukrenergo allows a second large-scale power outage in Ukraine

Russia is losing on the war front, but there is the possibility of another power outage in Ukraine. Volodymyr Kudrytsky, head of electricity transmission operator Ukrenergo, announced his forecast over a single phone call.

In his view, a complete blackout could theoretically happen again in Ukraine, but there is no immediate threat at the moment. The decreasing intensity of attacks indicates that Russia is gradually losing its offensive potential along with its ability to damage the Ukrainian energy system.

“I believe we are already through the worst with these attacks, or at least I hope so,” said Vladimir Kudritsky.

He added that Ukrainian energy engineers have learned to prepare for Russian bombardment and to minimize its consequences. For example, on January 31st and 1st, Russia launched a large number of missiles and Iranian kamikaze drones, but could not deprive Ukrainians of electricity, as most regions did not have emergency power cuts during New Year’s Eve celebrations.

“I am now confident that the Russians, who will lose on the conventional front, will also lose on the energy front,” said the head of Ukrenergo.

Earlier, they wrote about the initiation of emergency power cuts in Odessa from January 31 to January 1. DTEK Odessa Electric Grids reported that the situation has deteriorated sharply due to the shelling of the Russian Armed Forces and that in the future residents of the region may again be without electricity due to the overload of the grid.

Focus wrote about how Ukraine suffered a complete power outage after the November 23 attack. Intense bombardment of infrastructure facilities caused severe damage to the power grid, and some Ukrainians were left without power for several days. Power engineers worked to restore the system, and after a week the situation had improved significantly.