Ukraine imposed emergency blackouts on Tuesday, May 15, after weeks of Russian attacks on power plants left the country struggling with the cold, according to state power operator Ukrenergo.
Recent Russian strikes have heavily damaged Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, causing key facilities to fail and forcing the country to import electricity from neighboring EU nations to meet demand.
“From 21:00 to 24:00 (1800-2100 GMT), Ukrenergo is forced to introduce controlled emergency shutdowns in all regions of Ukraine,” Ukrenergo announced on Telegram.
“The reason for this is a significant shortage of electricity in the system as a result of Russian strikes and increased consumption due to a cold snap.”
The extent of the outages across the country remained unclear.
In Kyiv, the city administration reported that 10 percent of households were disconnected.
Footage from Lviv showed buildings in the city center and streetlights completely dark.
Ukrenergo stated that electricity supplies to businesses would be rationed throughout Wednesday.