Ex-Minister of Energy: Russians can blackout Ukraine every week
Additional protective equipment is being installed at Ukrainian electrical substations to protect them from Russian attacks.
Former Ukrainian Energy Minister Oleksiy Orzhel stated this on the Kyiv TV channel, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“There are photographs - some substations were protected, they were even separated by reinforced concrete foundation blocks. And when one transformer is hit, the equipment nearby is not destroyed,” says Orzhel.
He admitted that these blocks “do not always hold up, but they have begun to do so.”
“At some substations, they realized in the summer that if we don’t defeat the enemy before winter, the Russians will attack infrastructure facilities. The Russians know our system, and we know theirs, this is how it happened historically. Therefore, you can blackout every week, depending on the missile resource. If it weren’t for our air defense, this would have been possible for them,” the ex-minister believes.
According to him, the Russians began striking the energy infrastructure earlier than planned.
“We are dealing with terrorists, so they had plans for the worst-case scenario. And they wanted to attack during frosts of minus 11 degrees. However, they were triggered by the Crimean Bridge, they could not wait for this time and started earlier - when it was plus 14 outside. And this prepared us psychologically, because in severe frosts - the stress from the loss of electrical supplies would have been greater, it would have been more difficult for the entire system to prepare.
And the fact that the enemy started earlier is good for Ukraine,” Orzhel concluded.
English version :: Read in English Former Energy Minister: Russians could cause a blackout in Ukraine every week