The key facts
- Residents of a Kyiv residential complex blocked Zhytomyr Street after six days without electricity
- Scheduled outages are in effect in the city; under overload, the power grid switches to emergency shutdowns without warning
- Specialists say outages of up to two weeks are possible in Kyiv, Odesa and other major cities if main grid lines are damaged
Protest after six days without electricity
In Kyiv, residents of one of the residential complexes staged a protest after six days without electricity. They came out onto Zhytomyr Street and blocked car traffic: in videos published by the Ukrainian outlet Strana, city residents can be seen repeatedly crossing the road at a pedestrian crossing near the new apartment buildings, preventing cars from passing. The situation is reported by Life.ru, citing the Ukrainian outlet.
Why the outages have become unpredictable
Over the past few days, scheduled power outage schedules have been in effect in Kyiv, but the power grid periodically faces overloads, forcing energy workers to switch to emergency shutdowns. In such cases, residents do not know in advance when electricity will return to their homes — and this is exactly what became the backdrop for the protest.
Warning of longer outages
Energy sector specialists have warned of the risk of longer outages: in their assessment, Kyiv, Odesa and other major Ukrainian cities could be left without electricity for up to two weeks, if damage affects the main lines connecting them to Ukraine's unified power grid. This is so far a risk assessment, not an announced outage schedule.
