FILE PHOTO: Ukraine鈥檚 Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko addresses lawmakers during parliament session in Kyiv, Ukraine October 8, 2021. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko
Ukraine plans no more outages to ration electricity if there are no new strikes and has been able to amass some power reserves, the energy minister said on Saturday, after months of interruptions caused by Russian bombings.
鈥淓lectricity restrictions will not be introduced, provided there are no strikes by the Russian Federation on infrastructure facilities,鈥� Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said in remarks posted on the ministry鈥檚 Telegram messaging platform.
鈥淥utages will only be used for repairs.鈥�
After multiple battlefield setbacks and scaling down its troop operation to Ukraine鈥檚 east and south, Russia in October began bombing the country鈥檚 energy infrastructure, leaving millions without power and heat for days on end.
The temperature in winter months often stays below freezing across most of Ukraine. Halushchenko said this heating season has been extremely difficult.
鈥淏ut our power engineers managed to maintain the power system, and for the third week in a row, electricity generation has ensured consumption needs, we have reserves,鈥� Halushchenko said.
Ukraine, which does not produce power generators itself, has imported and received thousands of them over the past few years, with the US pledging a further $10 billion on Friday to aid Kyiv鈥檚 energy needs.
Separately, the chief executive of state grid operator Ukrenergo, Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, said that repair works on the damaged infrastructure in the city of Odesa suffered earlier this month, has been finished.
鈥淪tarting this evening, there is more light in Odesa,鈥� Kudrytskyi wrote on his Facebook page. 鈥淭he crews that worked on restoring networks are moving to other facilities.鈥�
A Feb. 4 fire that broke out at an overloaded power station left hundreds of thousands of residents without electricity.