Ukraine acknowledges that it cannot 100% restore its energy system after the Russian attacks | International

Ukraine has no capacity to restore its energy infrastructure, badly damaged by Russian attacks. The network cannot at this time reach the levels prior to the Russian invasion, as recognized by President Volodimir Zelensky. “Now it is impossible to restore 100% of the energy system,” warned the president in his speech on Wednesday night. Meanwhile, the Russian authorities in the occupied Crimean peninsula claimed to have shot down a drone near the port of Sevastopol on Wednesday. The kyiv authorities, which in recent days have gone on the offensive hitting Russian territory with drones, have not reported whether it was a device from their army. Those launched this week against Russian territory far from the border with Ukraine are Soviet-era devices modified by Ukrainian forces to adapt them to the offensive, as revealed by the newspaper on Thursday. Political.

This Monday the last massive launch of Russian missiles on Ukraine took place to make the winter harsher for the Ukrainian population, whose energy system suffers a deficit of approximately 20% that neither the repairs of the damage caused to the network by the Russian bombings manage to alleviate, according to the Prime Minister, Denis Shmihal. Faced with these attacks, Ukraine has decided to launch an offensive on Russian territory or controlled by its troops, as is the case with the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Moscow since 2014. “A fleet ship [rusa] of the Black Sea shot down an unmanned device over the sea,” the governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhaev, said on the Telegram social network on Wednesday. The Kremlin fears that the peninsula will be targeted by Ukrainian troops. “There is a risk, because the Ukrainian side persists in its line of organizing terrorist attacks,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov told the press, reports the AFP agency.

As a defense mechanism against the constant attacks, kyiv has responded by sending drones to several Russian air bases that are up to 700 kilometers away from the border of both countries. That new counteroffensive is being made possible thanks to modified drones that Ukraine possessed from the Soviet era, “indicating a deadly new capability for a country that relies primarily on imported weapons to fend off Russian advances,” according to the website. Political. According to sources close to the operation cited by the newspaper, these are Tu-141 surveillance aircraft whose modification shows “the capacity of the Ukrainian defense industry to innovate.”

face the winter

As technicians try to repair the latest damage caused by Monday’s bombing, power cuts continue to be the order of the day in different regions of Ukraine, including kyiv. The soundtrack of the generators placed in front of the businesses accompanies the pedestrians who travel through the snow-covered streets of the capital. “The system has a significant shortage of electricity,” state grid operator Ukrenergo said in a statement to warn of supply blackouts.

Zelensky has addressed the population to ensure that efforts and sacrifices will be necessary, at least until spring arrives, a message that he has emphasized in recent weeks. The attacks carried out by Russia two months ago on the infrastructures that supply electricity, water and gas to the Ukrainian population have caused irreparable damage at a time when the drop in temperatures is triggering energy consumption. “We are constantly increasing electricity generation and supply, we are adding more volume almost every day. But we must not forget – and no one must forget – that it is now impossible to restore 100% of the energy system to the way it was before the start of the Russian energy terror. We need time. For this reason, the schedules of cuts remain in most of the cities and districts, ”he said on Wednesday night in his daily address.

On the other hand, the state company Naftogaz acknowledges that the reserves of 14,500 million cubic meters of gas that they had accumulated for the winter have fallen short after the Russian attacks, which have increased consumption to deal with the electricity deficit. “Given the current situation, we have to be prepared to find additional volumes of natural gas and petroleum products in a short time, as well as to strengthen reserves,” company president Oleksii Chernishov said in an article published by the Interfax agency. In that column, he adds that Russian missiles have damaged 350 Naftogaz equipment and 450 kilometers of gas pipelines.

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