Water and electricity supply fully restored in Kharkiv

Local authorities in Kharkiv, in eastern Ukraine, said on Friday that the city’s water and electricity supplies had been fully restored following attacks by Russian troops this week.

The mayor of the city, Igor Terekhov, warned that although the supply has been restored, the municipality is still experiencing some difficulties to fully guarantee the supply, mainly electricity.

The mayor recalled that local authorities have set up places to charge mobile devices and others to buy hot drinks and food at various points on public roads, according to local news agency Ukrinform.

Russian forces on Wednesday launched a new wave of attacks on Ukraine’s badly damaged energy infrastructure.

Ukrainian authorities estimate that about 50% of Ukrainian energy facilities have been damaged in recent attacks.

In Kyiv, nearly half of residents were left without electricity this Friday and two-thirds without heating as sub-zero temperatures reach the region, the mayor of the Ukrainian capital, Vitali Klitschko, warned.

Volodymyr Kudrytsky, chairman of the board of directors of the state-owned electric power company Ukrenergo, said the Ukrainian energy system has now passed “the most difficult phase” since the attack.

Electricity has been partially restored and “the power grid has been reconnected to the EU grid,” he explained.

Moscow’s strategy of bombing energy facilities, implemented since October as the military retreated, is viewed by Ukraine’s Western allies as a “war crime” and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky calls it a “crime against humanity.”

Russia, for its part, says it is only targeting military infrastructure and links the blackout to Ukrainian air defense fire.

The military offensive launched on February 24 by Russia in Ukraine has already caused the flight of more than 13 million people – more than six million internally displaced people and more than 7.8 million to European countries – according to the latest UN data, which classifies this migration crisis as the worst in Europe since World War II (1939-1945).

The Russian invasion, justified by Russian President Vladimir Putin on the need to “denazify” and demilitarize Ukraine for Russia’s security, was condemned by the international community as a whole, which responded by sending weapons to Ukraine and imposing political and economic sanctions on Russia.

The UN has presented 6,595 civilian deaths and 10,189 wounded as confirmed since the start of the war, emphasizing that these figures are much lower than the real ones.