Ukraine's energy system is on the verge of collapse. But there is an opportunity and prospects to make sure that there are no blackout schedules if there is no new shelling. This was stated by Deputy Energy Minister Roman Andarak on Novosti.LIVE, UNN reports.
"Repairs are underway, but again, in recent days there has been a very powerful attack on the generation in the eastern part of Ukraine. My colleagues are trying to restore and repair it to the extent possible, but the system is working on the edge... As repairs are made, as additional generation facilities are commissioned, whether it is traditional generation or distributed generation, these outages will certainly decrease. But I don't want to make too much of a forecast, because these attacks are unpredictable. We still have a long winter ahead of us, and we need to be prepared," Andarak said.
When asked if Ukrainians would have to live with the cutoff schedules at least until spring, Andarak nodded his head in the affirmative, which probably meant "yes.
When asked whether this was an optimistic or pessimistic scenario, Andarak replied: "We will try to make sure that these schedules do not exist, there is an opportunity for this, there are prospects, we are working on repairs, our partners are helping us, if they do not shell.
Addendum
The head of the subcommittee on energy saving and energy efficiency of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Energy, Housing and Utilities, Serhiy Nagornyak, reportedthat there will be no collapse in the Ukrainian energy system this winter, even despite large-scale Russian missile attacks. Not even with a large number of missiles or severe frosts.
On November 23, The Times published an article claiming that corruption in the energy sector is putting Ukrainians at risk of a deadly freeze. The paper also claimed that Kyiv's alleged refusal to build bunkers for power substations to protect them from Russian airstrikes had left the country vulnerable to winter.