Click to see Kiev at night
On November 23, Russian forces resumed massive missile strikes on Ukraine. The main targets for russian missiles are energy infrastructure facilities. So far, dozens of explosions have been reported throughout the country.
Several targets were hit in the capital. According to preliminary reports, Russian missiles once again damaged the facilities in the CHP-5 and the CHP-6 . As a result of the attack, several regions of Kiev were cut of energy supplies. Water supply was suspended in the entire city.
Last night, large fire broke out at one of the substations in Kiev. Despite some attempts of Ukrainian sources to blame Russia for another attack, the station reportedly went out of work as a result of overvoltage. The energy system in the Ukrainian capital no longer manages with the consequences of Russian attacks.
Mayor of Kiev Klitschko claimed in his interview to Bild that the local authorities will have to partially evacuate citizens from the capital in the case of a “bad scenario”.
“Kiev can expect the worst winter since the Second World War. If there is the worst scenario, we may have to evacuate part of the city, although the authorities do not want it,” he said.
Explosion in Kiev
In the Nikolaev region, several explosions were reported in the city, after which the energy supplies were stopped. Another target in the region was a 750 kV substation. The strikes resulted the emergency shutdown of the power units of the South Ukrainian NPP.
According to the reports, the Rivne NPP has been put into emergency operation and the Khmelnitsky NPP was disconnected from the power system.
If confirmed, these are the first strikes on the high-voltage stations in Ukraine, which may be the last stage of destruction of the Ukrainian energy system.
Russian missiles reached their targets in the Belyavsky district in the Odessa region, near the city of Krivoy Rog in the Dnepropetrovsk region, in Volnyansk, where the Zaporozhye-750 substation is located. Another target was the Ladyzhinskaya TPP in the Vinnytsia region.
Strikes were reported near the Kremenchug dam in Svetlovodsk.
Explosion in Kremenchug
In Dnepropetrovsk, an infrastructure facility is burning as a result of the strikes:
Energy supplies were interrupted in all regions which are under Ukrainian control. Electric transport has been stopped in Kharkiv and Kiev, people are being evacuated from the subway. Trains were stopped throughout the country.
Ukrainian authorities reported that power outages the country will continue at least until the end of March 2023, in case if Russia does not continue strikes on energy infrastructure facilities, and Ukrainian services manage to maintain the pace of the repare works what is unlikely.
The head of the National Energy Company Ukrenergo has previously claimed that the thermal and hydroelectric power plants in the country were almost not damaged, as well as the key substations of Ukrenergo. If today’s emergency shutdowns of the power units at the NPPs are the result of Russian strikes on the high-voltage energy stations, but not the political maneuver of the Kiev regime aimed at forcing its Western allies to supply their advanced air defence systems to protect Ukrainian facilities, the maybe considered to be the new stage of Russian attempts to push Kiev to the negotiations table.
Ukrainian civilians were not the only to pay for the Kiev’s eager desire to prolong the war. On November 23, Chisinau and several regions of Moldova were left without electricity. Transnistria was also cut off electricity as a result of the strikes on Ukrainian facilities.