Day 254: Zelenskyy Says 4.5M Ukrainians Facing Electricity Shortages

Improve the News Foundation -

Facts

  • In his nightly address on Thursday, Ukrainian Pres. Volodymyr Zelenskyy revealed that an estimated 4.5M people across Kyiv, its outskirts, and nine other regions were facing rolling blackouts in the country. He also used the address to call on Ukraine's energy providers to be more transparent about planned blackouts to help tackle perceptions of unfairness.
  • Addressing the energy companies, Zelenskyy said: "Please be more active in explaining to people when and why you disconnect this or that street, this or that district. Now is the time for such micro communications. People have a right to know." He added: "If someone stays without electricity for eight or ten hours, and everything is connected, including street lighting, across the street, then this is definitely unfair." [
  • Meanwhile, during the second of two days of talks, foreign ministers from the Group of Seven (G7) countries reportedly agreed on the need for a coordination mechanism to help Ukraine repair, restore and defend its critical energy and water infrastructure. "That's something that will be a core focus of this group in the days and weeks ahead," an unnamed State Dept. official told reporters on Friday.
  • Elsewhere, the latest prisoner swap to date took place between Russia and Ukraine on Thursday, when the nations exchanged 107 service members each. Russian sources said that 65 of the service members released on their side were from Donetsk and Luhansk, while Ukrainian sources said 74 of those released on their side had been captured in the Azovstal steelworks plant in Mariupol.
  • On the ground, Russia's primary efforts continued in Donetsk, while missile and rocket strikes continued to be reported in Sumy, Zaporizhzhia and Mykolaiv. Ukrainian efforts, meanwhile, targeted the southern Kherson region.
  • Ukrainian officials reported that eight civilians were killed and 14 more were injured in Russian attacks on Donetsk in the last 24 hours, adding that the body of a civilian who'd been killed previously was also discovered. They added that one civilian was injured in Kharkiv and one in Kherson. In addition, Pro-Russia sources reported that one person was killed and two more were injured in Ukrainian attacks in Kherson, while one person was injured in Donetsk.

Sources: President, U.S. News, Pravda, Understanding War, and Ukrinform.

Narratives

  • Anti-Russia narrative, as provided by PBS NewsHour. This invasion is an egregious violation of international law. Putin's ultimate aim is to restore the Soviet empire, even if it takes massive bloodshed and false pretexts such as calling the 2014 Ukrainian revolution after an election a "coup". This unprovoked attack is the latest chapter in Putin's Orwellian attempt to rewrite history.
  • Pro-Russia narrative, as provided by National Security Archive. NATO and the US have ignored Russia's security concerns by breaking its promise not to expand eastward in return for German reunification. These concerns are legitimate and taking them seriously would have avoided the Ukraine tragedy.

Predictions