Ukraine will introduce new electricity-use restrictions and allow additional energy imports as authorities struggle to repair infrastructure heavily damaged by recent Russian attacks, Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko announced late Tuesday.
Russia has significantly increased the scale and intensity of its strikes on Ukraine’s gas and power infrastructure in recent months, targeting both thermal power plants and electricity transmission systems. As a result, many regions across the country have faced frequent and unpredictable blackouts.
On Tuesday, around half of Kyiv’s residents were left without electricity simultaneously, marking one of the most severe outages since the start of the winter season.
Svyrydenko wrote on X that additional lighting for buildings, streets, parks, decorative displays, and outdoor advertisements “is not a priority during this extremely difficult period for the energy sector.” She announced new measures aimed at improving conditions for civilian consumers.
The government will further shorten the list of buildings entitled to uninterrupted power supply, with hospitals, schools, critical infrastructure facilities, and defense-industry enterprises remaining exempt from power cuts.
State-owned companies will also be permitted to begin importing electricity, Svyrydenko confirmed.
“This will reduce pressure on Ukraine’s power grid and help stabilize peak-hour loads,” she added.
Emergency Blackouts Across the Country
The national grid operator implemented emergency power outages across most Ukrainian regions on Tuesday, cancelling the advance schedules released a day earlier and leaving major urban areas in the dark.
“The situation in Kyiv remains one of the most challenging; currently, up to 50 percent of consumers in the capital are without electricity,” the Ukrainian Energy Ministry reported on Telegram.
Ukraine operates three nuclear power plants that supply over half of the country’s electricity. However, output has been reduced due to damage to transmission lines, further straining the system.
The blackouts are also disrupting heating and water supply across the capital. Over the past week, residents of Kyiv and the surrounding region have received electricity for only about 10 hours per day, according to local authorities.
