Ukraine’s power supply is close to critical as Russian strikes on the energy grid bring darkness and cold, the BBC reported on Thursday, 12 November 2026. Rolling power cuts have been in place since October, as Russia intensified its attacks on Ukraine’s energy grid.
Some families in Kyiv are living with outages of up to 20 hours, and officials are concerned that life will quickly become unsustainable for millions if power cannot be maintained for at least four hours per day. Power cuts were introduced earlier this year than last winter and are lasting longer.
Kyiv has been worst hit: metro trains and trolleybuses have at times been brought to a standstill, and hundreds of thousands of people have been left without power in recent weeks. One of Ukraine’s largest power stations was hit by a ballistic missile, leaving its turbines buried in rubble; it will not carry electricity again before the end of winter.
President Volodymyr Zelensky says Ukraine still has enough generating capacity, and that the problem is distribution through destroyed power lines and substations. DTEK chief executive Maxim Timchenko says the grid is under even greater pressure than last year and that overstretched air defences cannot protect all critical infrastructure.
Source: BBC
