Ukraine fears looming winter ‘catastrophe’ as ‘horrible’ blackouts may get worse

Mark Savchuk, a Kyiv local and an expert in the energy sector with a postgraduate degree from the London School of Business and Finance, told Express.co.uk what the situation has been like for the capital’s 3.5 million people. 

He said: “From time to time, we have to switch off some users from the grid as part of a scheduled power off for four, five or six hours without electricity to balance the grid. When there is shelling, we may go into a complete blackout. Last time, it took around 19 hours to bring power back online. 90 percent of the network was working for 16 hours, so nothing was working for that amount of time. It is horrible. When you have no power, nothing works. You have no water, no heating, no cellphone coverage.”

And he warned that the situation could get far worse if sufficient support from the West is not provided ahead of Putin’s next assault. He said: “During the winter, it is quite frightening because nothing works at all.

“It becomes really dangerous during the winter because if water freezes in the pipes, you basically can’t use it until spring – until you have positive centigrade temperatures so that the water will thaw inside the tubes so you can use it again.”

Article source: https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/1704282/ukraine-blackouts-russia-winter-catastrophe-aid