Ukrainians try to conserve electricity, endure water outages after
Russian strikes
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[October 20, 2022]
By Pavel Polityuk
KYIV (Reuters) - Ukrainians conserved
electricity and some went without running water to try to ease pressure
on the grid and give engineers a chance to rebuild infrastructure
destroyed by Russian strikes as Kyiv's forces advanced towards the city
of Kherson.
Although Ukraine is successfully prosecuting counter-offensives against
Russian forces in the east and the south, it is struggling to protect
power generating facilities and other utilities from Russian air and
drone strikes designed to disrupt lives and demoralise people as winter
approaches.
The Ukrainian government on Thursday placed restrictions on electricity
usage nationwide for the first time since Russia's Feb. 24 invasion
following a barrage of attacks which President Volodymr Zelenskiy said
had struck a third of all power plants.
Under the new energy-saving regime, power supply across Ukraine was on
Thursday restricted between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m.
Ukraine's energy minister said the government was seeking a 20%
reduction in energy use and that Ukrainians were responding to the
appeal to limit usage.
"We see a drop in consumption," he said. "We see a voluntary decrease.
But when it is not enough, we are forced to bring in forced shutdowns,"
Minister Herman Halushchenko told Ukrainian TV.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2022/Oct/20/images/ads/current/state_bank_lda_PPP_2022.png)
Russia had carried out more than 300 air strikes on Ukrainian energy
facilities since Oct. 10, he added.
Zelenskiy told the nation in a Wednesday night video address: "There is
new damage to critical infrastructure. Three energy facilities were
destroyed by the enemy today.
"We assume that Russian terror will be directed at energy facilities
until, with the help of partners, we are able to shoot down 100% of
enemy missiles and drones."
One of the facilities hit on Wednesday was a coal-fired thermal power
station in the city of Burshtyn in western Ukraine.
"Unfortunately there is destruction, and it is quite serious," Svitlana
Onyshchuk, Ivano-Frankivsk's governor, said on Ukrainian television.
"Please limit your electricity consumption," Zelenskiy told Ukrainians
in the same address to the nation.
The Ukrainian leader was due to address an EU summit later on Thursday.
Leaders of the 27 member states will discuss options for more support to
Ukraine, including energy equipment, helping restore power supply and
long-term financing to rebuild.
BATTLE FOR KHERSON
Cities such as the capital Kyiv and Kharkiv in the northeast announced
curbs on the use of electric-powered public transport such as
trolleybuses and reduced the frequency of trains on the metro.
DTEK, a major electricity supplier in Kyiv, told consumers it would do
its best to make sure outages did not last longer than four hours.
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![](../images/102022PIX/news_u99.jpg)
People shop in a supermarket as Kharkiv
suffers an electricity outage, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in
Kharkiv, Ukraine, October 17, 2022. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2022/Oct/20/images/ads/current/graue_22SILVERADO_061822.png)
The whole northeast region of Sumy, which borders Russia, said it
would go the entire day - from 0700 to 2300 local time - without
water, electric transport or street lighting.
"We need time to restore power plants, we need respite from our
consumers," Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, head of grid operator Ukrenergo,
told Ukrainian TV.
Russia's defence ministry said on Thursday it was continuing to
target Ukrainian energy infrastructure, a strategy it has stepped up
since the appointment earlier this month of Sergei Surovikin -
nicknamed "General Armageddon" by the Russian media because of his
alleged toughness - as overall commander of what Moscow called its
"special military operation".
Reuters witnesses said five drones hit the southern port city of
Mykolaiv on Thursday, but it was unclear where they had exploded.
The Ukrainian military continued to try to press its advance towards
the southern city of Kherson, the only regional capital Russian
forces have captured since their invasion eight months ago.
The Russian-appointed administration on Wednesday told civilians to
leave the city - control of which allows Russia to control the only
land route to the Crimea peninsula, seized by Russia in 2014, and
the mouth of the Dnipro river.
On Wednesday, Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the Russia-backed
administration in Kherson, wrote on Telegram that Ukraine had
launched an offensive towards Novaya Kamianka and Berislav in the
Kherson region.
While Ukraine remained tight-lipped about its operations, its
military said in an early Thursday update on the Kherson region said
43 Russian servicemen had been killed and six tanks and other
equipment destroyed.
The Russian defence ministry on Thursday described a battle in the
area which it said its forces had won in the end.
"In the area of the settlement of Sukhanovo, Kherson region, the
enemy managed to drive a wedge into Russian units' defensive lines,"
the ministry said.
"Due to the introduction of a tank reserve by the Russian command
into battle, as well as ambush actions, the enemy was significantly
defeated, and Ukrainian units fled. The position on the front edge
of the defensive line has been completely restored."
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2017/Jul/22/images/ads/current/rohlfs_lda_072017.png)
Reuters was not able to verify battlefield reports.
(Reporting by Reuters bureaux; Writing by Andrew Osborn; Editing by
Angus MacSwan)
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