Power outages in Ukraine will last for 4 to 18 hours per day in winter – UN report

Experts, surveyed by the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU), forecast that power blackouts in Ukraine will last from 4 to 18 hours every day in winter.

Source: report by the experts

Details: "This winter will be very hard. People will likely face regular power blackouts throughout the country. Any new attacks, which will lead to more durable outages, may have catastrophic consequences," Daniel Bell, the head of HRMMU, said.

Bell stated that the consequences of the attacks will be durable and require a complex approach.

"National and international partners must unite the efforts to restore critical infrastructure and hold those who caused damages accountable," she said.

In the report, long-term consequences of Russian attacks were described based on the results of visits to power facilities, interviews with technical experts, representatives of power companies, locals and officials.

It was stressed that in winter the consequences of the destruction of the Ukrainian power system may be even more serious than in summer due to low temperatures. Experts, surveyed by HRMMU, state that power blackouts in winter will last from 4 to 18 hours every day due to the deficit in power generation.

As of June 2024, 73% of thermal power plants were put out of order. If in the winter 2022-2023 Russian attacks mostly targeted power transmission facilities, power generation facilities have become the main target since March 2024.

One of the big power companies the report refers to states that as a result, three times more power generating facilities were damaged in 2024 than in winter 2022-2023.

Background: The EU believes that a challenging winter awaits Ukraine due to its power system being damaged in Russian attacks but the situation will not be catastrophic.

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