The announcement came as temperatures in the capital, Kyiv, plunged to minus 19 degrees Celsius (minus 2.2 degrees Fahrenheit), with hundreds of apartment buildings still without heating following a major Russian strike last week
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a state of emergency has been declared in the country’s energy sector after repeated Russian attacks left thousands of homes without heat and electricity during freezing winter conditions.
The announcement came as temperatures in the capital, Kyiv, plunged to minus 19 degrees Celsius (minus 2.2 degrees Fahrenheit), with hundreds of apartment buildings still without heating following a major Russian strike last week.
“The consequences of Russian strikes, combined with worsening weather conditions, are extremely serious,” Zelenskyy wrote on X late Wednesday.
He said repair crews, energy companies, municipal workers and Ukraine’s State Emergency Service are working around the clock to restore electricity and heating.
Zelenskyy added that he had asked the government to review curfew restrictions during the period of extreme cold and said efforts were under way to increase electricity imports to ease the crisis.
In Kyiv, 471 apartment buildings remained without heat on Wednesday, nearly a week after the attack disrupted heating, electricity and water supplies to thousands of homes, city officials said.
The assault, which began late last Thursday, prompted Mayor Vitali Klitschko to urge residents to leave the city, warning that nearly half of Kyiv’s apartment buildings about 6,000 were without heating after critical infrastructure was damaged in the massive attack.
Energy infrastructure has been a frequent target since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with both sides striking oil refineries, gas pipelines, pumping stations, and nuclear and thermal power plants powered by coal, oil and gas.
Meanwhile, Russian-installed official Yevhen Balitsky said on Telegram on Wednesday that a Ukrainian strike had left more than 3,000 people without electricity in Russian-occupied parts of the Zaporizhia region.
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