A journalist commented on the aftermath of Russia's morning attack, suggesting it could create divisions among Ukrainians over the issue of electricity supply.
On December 25, Russian occupiers launched a massive missile strike on Ukraine's energy facilities. This attack has proven to be more damaging for the country than the previous ones. Journalist Yuri Nikolov wrote about this on his Facebook.
"Today's missile strike, unfortunately, turned out to be worse for us than a couple of previous attacks by Putin. This time he managed to disable several generating facilities in left-bank Ukraine (plus one more in the west). As a result, power outages will be with us for a long time. Yes, it’s not a catastrophe right now. It's just that the energy deficit has sharply increased, and we can manage with planned outages in two shifts out of six. We’ll have to get used to it," he wrote.
The journalist noted that if the next Russian strike on Ukrainian distribution substations is also successful, it could be very detrimental for all of Ukraine. According to him, the Russians are knocking out the "remaining energy production" in conditionally left-bank Ukraine, which means that Kharkiv, Sumy, Dnipro, Kryvyi Rih, Kyiv, and Zaporizhzhia are receiving energy from conditionally right-bank Ukraine, where all Ukrainian nuclear power plants operate.
"It's like having a generator on one half of a house, while the other half is powered by it through an extension cord. Now, if you just pull on the extension cord — the other half of the house will be left completely without power. Meanwhile, the part of the house with the generator will continue to have light as if nothing happened," he explained.
He suggests that this will lead to dissatisfaction among Ukrainians who will be left in the dark while others have electricity, and this will be "fertile ground for Russian propaganda narratives. Therefore, President Volodymyr Zelensky and the Ministry of Energy should explain this to Ukrainians now.
"We need to start explaining to people what kind of mess we are already in. Yes, we will have to clarify why the Ministry of Energy did not timely ensure the creation of distributed gas generation. But if this is not done, soon the East and the West will face another division line," the journalist believes.
He noted that the next strike could occur on New Year’s and Christmas in Russia, but for now, Ukrainians have managed to "get by" due to the mild weather.
Recall that as a result of the combined strike on Ukraine, DTEK has updated the electricity blackout schedules. The duration of power outages in Kyiv and the region, as well as in Odesa and Dnipro, has been extended.