UKRAINE, KHARKIV OBLAST, Jan. 21 — As of Jan. 20, 520,000 customers are without power because of Russian attacks on critical infrastructure in Kharkiv oblast and across Ukraine. The municipal and emergency services are working to repair the damage caused by the attacks, Oleh Syniehubov, the Kharkiv region’s governor, said during the briefing.

Syniehubov said that, though 60,000 customers have been without power since 2022, another 460,000 customers have no electricity because of the recent Russian strikes.

“Yesterday, 1.1 million customers were without power. That is almost 90% of the people in Kharkiv and the Kharkiv region,” said the governor.

He said that the main thing is to supply electricity to people when they come home from 6 p.m.  and at least until morning, but mentioned that, in recent days, some consumers didn’t have power for up to 10 hours.

Emergency power outage schedules have been operating in the Kharkiv region for three days now. Unlike scheduled outages, they are unpredictable, Syniehubov said, and depend on Ukraine-wide state of the energy system.

The region has set up 950 resilience centers, over 350 warming centers, and is preparing distribution locations for hot meals.

However, the administration has not yet recorded increased demand for them.

The governor said that, if necessary and after consulting with the military, they may change the curfew so that people can access the warming centers at any time of day or night. But no such changes will be made for now because, according to Syniehubov, there’s no demand for them and there’s no issues with heating in the Kharkiv region.

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