Ukraine has urged residents to drastically restrict their electricity consumption starting Thursday to cope with the destruction of power stations by the Russian army as winter approaches.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said after a meeting with energy companies that they were preparing “for all possible scenarios with a view to winter”, as Kyiv accused Moscow of orchestrating a “mass deportation” of civilians from the occupied region of Kherson
Russian President Vladimir Putin imposed martial law on Wednesday in four areas recently annexed by the Kremlin, with his forces raining down munitions across Ukraine, including on Kyiv and the country’s west, which had previously been spared the brunt of the onslaught.
In an evening address, Zelensky warned that “Russian terror will be directed at energy facilities” and urged the country to conserve electricity starting at 7 am (0400 GMT) on Thursday.
He added that the government was “working on the creation of mobile power supply points for critical infrastructure in cities and villages”
Kyiv mayor Vitaliy Klitschko asked residents of the capital not to turn on major electrical appliances, saying, “even a small saving and reduction of electricity consumption in each residence will help to stabilise the national energy system’s operation”.
Ukraine said it had downed “several Russian rockets” over Kyiv in the third consecutive day of attacks on the capital. Zelensky said 10 Iranian-made drones aimed at the city had also been destroyed Wednesday.
A Ukrainian representative called the push by Russia to evacuate Kherson the “equivalent of deportation”. The city has been in Moscow’s hands since the earliest days of the invasion
He said the Russians were using the evacuations as a pretext to justify “their withdrawal from Kherson and more generally from the right bank” of the Dnieper River.
Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, criticised Moscow’s move as criminal.
“Putin’s martial law in the annexed regions of Ukraine is preparation for the mass deportation of the Ukrainian population to depressed areas of Russia in order to change the ethnic composition of the occupied territory,” Danilov said