Zelensky: At least EUR 1.5B needed for superficial restoration of energy facilities destroyed by Russia

The president said this in a speech at the International Conference "Solidarity with the Ukrainian People", jointly organized by France and Ukraine, reports an Ukrinform correspondent.

"Ukraine withstood hundreds of Russian strikes of varying intensity on our energy sector. But now, unfortunately, most of our power plants are damaged or destroyed by shelling. All hydroelectric power plants, all thermal power plants," said Zelensky.

He added that one of the Russian strikes provoked the shutdown of all nuclear units at Ukrainian nuclear power plants.

"At least one and a half billion euros is needed for the superficial quick restoration of Ukrainian energy facilities destroyed by Russian strikes alone. Every day, after every Russian attack, we try to restore technical capability, generate and supply electricity, but our energy companies have to disconnect millions, millions of Ukrainians from the supply every day due to a critical power shortage in the general energy system," the president said.

According to Zelensky, right now in Ukraine, about 12 million people in almost all regions and the capital have no access to power supplies.

"Unfortunately, this is a typical situation for us. And we expect more Russian strikes every day, which can dramatically increase the number of outages. That is why generators and uninterruptible power sources have now become as necessary in Ukraine as armored vehicles and body armor," he emphasized.

According to the Ukrainian leader, this is the only way to protect ordinary people in the conditions of Russia's bid for blackout.

The head of state reported that, in fact, a decentralized energy generation system is currently being built in Ukraine in parallel lines with the main one.

"It is being built very quickly in all regions, by multiple entities, but still it cannot cover all of Ukraine’s needs," the president emphasized.

He informed that thousands of Ukrainian enterprises, small and medium-sized businesses, and social facilities continue to operate thanks to installed generators. Hospitals also operate on generators, hundreds of thousands of jobs have already been saved thanks to generators, while Internet and telecom services are also available.

In addition, Zelensky said, more than 5,000 Invincibility Points have been deployed across the country.

"I am grateful to the countries that are already helping Ukraine with the appropriate equipment to maintain such a level of energy sustainability of our state and society," Zelensky emphasized.

As reported by Ukrinform, almost half of Ukraine's energy system was disabled due to Russian shelling.