“It’s hard, but we’re moving on.” Enemy Uses ‘Salami Principle’ to Cut Off Cities From Light: How It Threatens Nuclear Security – NV Interview

— Another missile and drone attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure took place yesterday. We see that the Russian dictator Vladimir Putin is targeting our energy facilities, in particular, so that at the beginning of winter Ukrainians freeze and sit in the dark. In all regions of Ukraine, emergency power cuts were urgently introduced yesterday due to this attack. This was reported by the Minister of Energy Herman Galushchenko. A million subscribers in the west without electricity. Ukrenergo stated that energy facilities were damaged in several regions. I know that in the Rivne region there were problems with electricity, in Lutsk there were also blackouts for several hours. But despite such shelling, the situation is still not so dire. The lights are turned off for several hours, not as Russia would like. What is the general situation in the energy sector now, how can you comment on it?

— You have already mentioned a lot in the outline. I want to remind our listeners that this year alone we have already experienced the 11th shelling of energy facilities. And we must understand with you that the enemy is trying to destroy several types of these objects. These are substations that allow [транспортувати] that electricity that is produced at thermal power plants, at nuclear power plants, at hydroelectric power plants. This, by the way, is the strategy pursued by the enemy in 2022-2023 when they hit high-voltage substations.

You and I witnessed how in the spring, due to the lack of an opportunity to protect our skies, due to the lack of suitable missiles for our air defense system, due to the indecision of our partners to provide us with the necessary assistance, the enemy also hit generation facilities, namely thermal power plants. And 80% of them were damaged, as of now, a large part has been restored. This is from the positive points. The enemy has not managed to completely destroy our coal and gas-fired generation, and now it is helping us a lot. After all, you and I survived the summer mainly thanks to nuclear power plants and thanks to solar power plants.

As of now, you and I have the results of the shelling of those objects that allow, as I have already said, electricity generated at nuclear plants to be primarily transmitted to the power grid. This is already the third major wave of shelling, and this month the second major wave of shelling of just such objects, which shows that the enemy is determined to leave us without access to electricity generated at nuclear plants.

We have enough, thank God, this time formed reserves, strategic reserves of equipment, unlike in 2022-2023, which allow us to quickly restore equipment that is damaged by such attacks – both shaheed and rockets – at large high-voltage substations.

Therefore, there is a real positive, and here we definitely have no right to despair, we must persevere under any circumstances. I want to personally thank all our energy workers for their heroic work in restoring our facilities and keeping them in good condition. Therefore, it is difficult, difficult, but we are moving on and definitely do not despair.

— Mrs. Victoria, in which region is the most difficult situation now? After the shelling yesterday, it is said that there is more damage in the west, there they are working on restoring the light. I also have friends in Kryvyi Rih, they say that some neighborhoods of the city have been without electricity and heat for three days. Here is the most difficult situation, where we most need help now and what is being done for this, if you know?

– What do we have to understand with you? We have three nuclear power plants that provide more than 60% of our electricity. These are the Rivne, Khmelnytsky and South Ukrainian nuclear power plants. The enemy attacked those substations that allow us to deliver electricity from nuclear units to consumers throughout Ukraine – both on the right and on the left bank. And such objects were damaged yesterday. Not all, but many of them were damaged.

Especially in the west of Ukraine, we have problems with the supply of electricity, because we cannot deliver the electricity that we could produce to the consumer. Restoration work is underway.

And, by the way, I want to note that the enemy has once again used cluster shells, which have a large radius of damage to objects, and it takes time to find where the damage occurred, and it also takes time to recover. That’s why we have to be a little patient here and wait for the energy experts to do their work.