Emergency blackouts were implemented across Kyiv due to Russian attacks on the city's energy infrastructure, Ukraine's biggest private energy firm DTEK said on Oct. 16, as Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko announced the start of the city's heating season.
"We remind you that during emergency shutdowns, schedules are not valid," DTEK said. Kyiv already operates under scheduled power outages, allowing residents to plan their days around them, but Russian attacks on the city's energy infrastructure led to additional emergency power outages over the past weeks.
On the same day, Klitschko announced that Kyiv's centralised heating system will be turned on, starting with social institutions such as schools, hospitals, and kindergartens. The decision was sparked by "extreme conditions" created by constant bombardment, Klitschko said.
Two areas of the city, the Dniprovskyi and Darnytskyi districts, would not have their centralised heating switched on due to "significant damage" to a power facility in the area, Klitschko said, while repair efforts were ongoing.
Kyiv, a city the size of Berlin, is home to over 3 million people, with average temperatures of -4.6 degrees Celsius to -1 degrees Celsius (23.7 degrees Fahrenheit to 30 degrees Fahrenheit) in the winter months.
In Kyiv Oblast, Buchanan, Obukhiv, and Fastiv districts were also experiencing emergency blackouts, DTEK said.
In Western Ukraine, the city of Lutsk was left without power, Andriy Razumovsky, secretary of Lutsk City Council, announced on social media.
"Due to an attack by enemy drones, the city was left without electricity. Utilities are operating on backup power sources," Razumovsky said.
Overnight on Oct. 13 to 14, Russia launched a large-scale ballistic missile attack on Kyiv, wreaking destruction in a residential neighborhood and targeting several energy facilities in Kyiv.
Prime Minister Serhii Koretskyi said that all three of the city's combined heat and power stations were attacked, as well as critical infrastructure in the Kyiv Oblast that provide power to Kyiv and central regions.
"The targets of Russian ballistic missiles were power system facilities in Kyiv, Kharkiv, and the region," he said.
"Overnight, the Russians deployed 39 ballistic missiles and more than 120 strike drones and loitering munitions against our energy and critical infrastructure in Kyiv, Kyiv Oblast, and Kharkiv," President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a post on social media on Oct.14, adding that 600,000 people were left without power.