Ukrainian Energy Ministry: 281 communities cut off from power because of bad weather

MOSCOW. Jan 11 (Interfax) - Specialists in Ukraine have restored electricity supply to 248 communities earlier cut off from power because of bad weather, and 281 other populated areas still remain without energy, Ukrainian media have reported with reference to the Energy Ministry's social media post.

"Glaze ice, fallen transmission towers, and broken transmission lines have caused outages in 281 communities, including 128 in the Dnepropetrovsk region, 70 in the Kirovograd region, 56 in the Nikolayev region, and 27 in the Odessa region," the ministry said.

At the same time, electricity has been restored to 58 communities in the Dnepropetrovsk region, 73 in the Odessa region, 37 in the Kirovograd region, and 43 in the Nikolayev region. Power supply has also been fully restored to communities earlier left without electricity because of adverse weather in the Sumy and Chernigov regions.

A total of 117 emergency crews including 355 specialists and 135 pieces of equipment are continuing to work to make repairs and restore power supply, it said.

Apart from that, as Ukrainian media have reported citing the national power grid operator Ukrenergo, 418 communities across the country have no electricity for technical and other reasons.

Ukraine has more than doubled electricity imports to 4,999 MW/h, receiving it on Thursday from Slovakia, Romania, and Moldova. It has not exported electricity for the past week.