Ukraine Braces for Russia's Winter Strikes as Grid Hardening Outpaces Schedule
· World · Hindustan Times, The Economist, economist
Ukraine is rushing to harden its electricity grid and air defences ahead of what officials expect to be Russia's most intense winter campaign of the war. In Bereznyaky, a suburb of Kyiv, repair crews are replacing Soviet-era cables with thicker lines after last winter's Russian strikes knocked out the local heating plant, leaving hundreds of apartment blocks without power or heat for weeks. A government resilience plan launched in April aims to deliver enough local generation, physical protection, decentralised heating, and decentralised power supply inside each major city, with energy minister Denys Shmyhal overseeing execution. Officials say half the planned works are already complete, and the country will enter winter with surplus generation capacity, 14 billion cubic metres of gas in reserve, and new private air-defence companies supplementing military interceptors. Ukraine still faces critical gaps, including a shortage of ballistic-missile interceptors and Russia's expanding flee
Why it matters
If Russia's strikes overwhelm Ukraine's grid again, millions of civilians in cities including Kyiv and Kharkiv could face prolonged blackouts and heating failures, while the country's wartime industry and defence production would also be disrupted.
Read the original report — Hindustan Times
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