Ukraine restores power after fire wipes out Odesa substation, beats back Bakhmut attack
- Ukraine’s ailing energy grid that has been hammered by Russian strikes for months, with this latest setback leaving 500,000 people without power
- Ukraine said it fought off a Russian assault on the embattled eastern city of Bakhmut, as it endured a fresh wave of shelling in the disputed Donetsk region
The Ukrainian port city of Odesa on Saturday restored power to critical infrastructure after a fire broke out at an overloaded substation, leaving nearly 500,000 people without electricity, a top official said.
The blaze, which erupted earlier in the day, is a new blow to the country’s ailing energy grid that has been hammered by Russian strikes for months.
Officials said repairs could take weeks. The government said it would appeal to Turkey for help.
“Power to all critical infrastructure has been restored. The city will therefore have water and heat,” Ukraine Energy Minister German Galushchenko wrote on Facebook late in the day.
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“About a third of the city’s consumers now have lighting,” he said, without giving precise details, adding that 31 high-power generators were on their way to the city.
The CEO of the state grid operator, Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, earlier said critical equipment that had already been damaged several times by Russian missile strikes burst into flames when it could no longer “withstand the load”.