Serious damage caused to Ukrainian power infrastructure on Friday - energy minister

MOSCOW. Feb 10 (Interfax) - A number of thermal and hydropower generating facilities and high-voltage infrastructure elements sustained serious damage in several parts of Ukraine on Friday, Energy Minister German Galushchenko said.

"Emergency outages have been triggered in numerous districts. The most difficult situation is in the Zaporozhye, Kharkov, and Khmelnitsky regions," Ukrainian media quoted Galushchenko as saying on his social account.

At the same time, the Ukrainian energy system's integrity has been preserved, he said.

"Power engineers are working nonstop to resume power supply," he said.

Ukrainian media have reported with reference to the national power grid operator Ukrenergo that the company is preemptively applying emergency outages to minimize further negative effects of the damage caused to power supply infrastructure.

Meanwhile, four thermal power plants of the DTEK Energo sustained damage on Friday, Ukrainian media have reported with reference to the energy company.

"Equipment of thermal power plants has been seriously damaged," DTEK said on social media.