The country has already decree of the state of emergency in the energy sector of Ukraine, especially in Kyiv, as Russian attacks are ongoing and thousands of citizens remain in the dark. President Volodymyr Zelensky states that Moscow of intentionally not providing aid to the population due to the severe winter conditions as a part of the war effort, and temperatures in Kyiv are dropping to about -20C overnight recently.
It is made after the US counterpart of Zelensky Donald Trump announced that he was freezing attempts to reach a peace agreement with Russia to end almost four years of war. On Wednesday, he informed the Reuters news agency that Ukraine is not as prepared to make a deal as Russian president Vladimir Putin. Trump replied when questioned about the lack of peace talks to end the conflict, that Zelensky was the reason. The evaluations of Trump were welcomed by the Kremlin on Thursday, as its spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists: President Putin and the Russian side are open to the discussions. Both the American and Ukrainian leaders are to be present at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland next week, but Trump implied that no formal meetings would be made. Thousands of homes have lost regular power, heating or running water in recent weeks because of Russian attacks on Kyiv. This was following a night last week when 70 percent of the capital was left powerless following a particularly heavy night of missile and drone attacks.
On Wednesday, Zelensky announced that a 24-hour task force would be established to repair the damage to Russian attacks and the deteriorating weather. According to him, the new measures will involve importation of crucial energy equipments and resources to substitute damaged installations. He posted on X: “The First Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Energy of Ukraine has been given the task of working on the support of people and communities in such circumstances. He also instructed to increase the amount of emergency help points in the area around Kyiv to supply heat and electricity to the citizens, a decision that may result in a softening of existing midnight curfew in the city. The capital is not the only location affected by Russian attacks on the energy infrastructure.
On the one hand, Ukrainian officials reported last week that over one million individuals in south-eastern Ukraine spent the hours without heating and water supplies due to Russian air attacks. DTEK, the largest privately owned energy company in Ukraine is operating in constant crisis due to the Russian attacks on the grid, according to its CEO Maxim Timchenko. With the fourth anniversary of the full-scale invasion of Russia coming near, Timchenko stated that Russia had launched waves of drones, cruise and ballistic missiles at the energy grid at DTEK multiple times and the company could barely handle it. He also said that the severity of strikes had been so common that we simply do not have time to rest. DTEK is now supplying electricity to 5.6 million people in Ukraine.