The Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense reported that Russia is studying options for strikes on power substations that support the operation of Ukrainian nuclear power plants.
Intelligence believes that this is an attempt by the Russians to force Ukraine to sign unacceptable demands for surrender in order to end the war.
The GRU noted that by destroying or disabling these substations, Russia seeks to disconnect the nuclear power plant units from Ukraine's unified power grid, leaving Ukrainian civilians completely without electricity and heating.
Ukraine has information that Russia plans to damage Ukrainian nuclear power plants, President Volodymyr confirmed in his evening video address Zelensky.
“If the Russians were really serious about ending the war, they would focus on diplomacy, not missile attacks, not power outages, and not even attempts to damage our nuclear power plants. We have information about the places where Russia conducted reconnaissance for strikes. Everything clearly shows that diplomacy is definitely not a priority for Russia“, the Ukrainian leader said.
Zelensky noted that Ukraine keeps the United States informed about the situation in Ukraine, as well as about Russia's ongoing attacks on the Ukrainian power grid.
The president added that “the occupiers have been attacking Naftogaz facilities in different regions of Ukraine all week”. He specified that the latest strike occurred yesterday and was aimed at gas production.
Residents of the Ukrainian capital Kiev are experiencing approximately 3 hours of electricity and 10 hours of no electricity, with the situation varying in different regions.
This was stated on his Facebook page by the executive director of Yasno, Sergiy Kovalenko, quoted by UNIAN.
"Outages can last more than 16 hours. This is the current reality“, he added. Kovalenko stressed that the power outages, which lasted more than 16 hours, were caused by Russian strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure. He said that it was difficult to say whether the situation would improve in the near future.
„We definitely have to survive these severe colds – consumption should decrease with warming. However, the key factor is the shelling of energy infrastructure. "It is impossible to predict," Kovalenko concluded.
On the night of January 18, the Russians used drones to attack energy infrastructure in the southern Odessa region. Oleg Kiper, head of the Odessa regional military administration, reported that the strikes caused a fire at one of its facilities.
On January 17, they launched guided bombs on the outskirts of Sumy. The attack resulted in casualties, as well as damage to residential buildings, outbuildings and vehicles.
The head of the Sumy city military administration, Sergiy Krivosheenko, reported that the city's power supply had been cut off. Medical and other critical infrastructure was operating normally or with backup power.