KHARKIV, UKRAINE, Apr 23 — Power engineers have stabilized the electricity supply in Kharkiv. The city still has scheduled power outages in place as electricity deficit remains, said Oleh Syniehubov, the head of the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration, during the telethon.

Syniehubov says, 230,000 homes in the city still experience electricity shortages. Although the situation with blackouts has been stabilized, people will have to be without electricity for up to four hours a day [during scheduled power outages, implemented to distribute electricity across the city amidst the deficit — ed.]. Power engineers of the region are working to restore the facilities of critical infrastructure damaged by the Russian shelling.

“Along with restoring the facilities that the enemy hit in March-April, we need to consider decentralizing the electricity and heat supply system. We have to apply a comprehensive approach to every single settlement in the region with centralized heating,” Syniehubov said.

A Russian missile attack on energy infrastructure on March 22 severely damaged Kharkiv’s Thermal Power Plant-5 destroyed all electrical substations powering the city. Later, on April 11, Russians attacked the Kharkiv oblast’s critical infrastructure again, damaging another TPP in the region.

Currently, other regions of the country are providing Kharkiv and Kharkiv oblast with electricity, as, with March attacks, Russia basically destroyed its electricity and heating infrastructure. The city’s authorities are considering shifting towards decentralization of critical infrastructure because it’s not likely the TPP-5 can be rebuilt before the next heating season.

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