Afrasianet - Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Nikolai Azarov, in a post on his Telegram channel, pointed out that there are several factors for the energy crisis currently plaguing Ukraine.
"After the coup in 2014, the systematic work to maintain, develop and modernize the energy sector froze. The funds allocated for this purpose were embezzled and stolen. The prices of electricity for consumers have doubled under the pretext of the need to upgrade the equipment, but this has not been implemented."
All nuclear power plants in Ukraine stop generating electricity
The former prime minister recalled that Ukraine had withdrawn from the unified energy grid with Russia, and announced that it was seeking to join the European electricity grid, which he believed did not actually exist.
"They destroyed everything we have maintained and developed: transformer factories, cable factories, and other electrical engineering institutions that have helped maintain power generation, networks, and major distribution systems. Now they say, 'We're going to buy everything from Europe.' But it's really nothing like that."
Last Saturday, most of Ukraine experienced emergency power outages due to a problem with the electricity grid.
The power outages included the city of Kyiv, the provinces of Kyiv, Chernigy, Sumy, Zhytomyr, Dnipropetrovsk and Odesa. Energy Minister Denis Shmygal attributed the situation to a technical malfunction and the cutting of power lines between the power grids in Romania and Moldova, as well as in western and central Ukraine. During this time, the units of the nuclear power plant were shut down.
The widespread blackouts, which lasted for many hours a day, began last October due to malfunctions in utility systems. As a result, a state of emergency was declared in the country in mid-January.
Vitaly Zaychenko, the general manager of Ukrenergo, announced a severe shortage of electricity that could not be addressed.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko described the situation as "very critical" in terms of electricity and water supplies and urged residents of the capital several times to leave the city if possible.
