Il Nuovo Postiglione - Ukraine scrambles for energy with power generation at 'zero'

Moscow, which has escalated attacks on Ukraine's infrastructure in recent months, launched hundreds of drones at energy facilities across the country overnight into Saturday.

The attacks interrupted electricity, heat and water supplies in several cities, with state power firm Centerenergo warning generating capacity "is down to zero".

Power would be cut for between eight to 16 hours a day across most regions of Ukraine on Sunday, state provider Ukrenergo said, while repairs were carried out and energy sourcing diverted.

While the situation had somewhat stabilised, regions including Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Poltava, Chernigiv and Sumy could continue to see regular power cuts, Ukraine's energy minister said Saturday evening.

"The enemy inflicted a massive strike with ballistic missiles, which are extremely difficult to shoot down. It is hard to recall such a number of direct strikes on energy facilities since the beginning of the invasion," Svitlana Grynchuk told local broadcaster United News.

Russian drones had targeted two nuclear power substations deep in western Ukraine, Kyiv's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said, calling on the UN's nuclear watchdog to respond.

The substations powered the Khmelnytskyi and Rivne nuclear plants, around 120 and 95 kilometres (75 and 59 miles) respectively from Lutsk, he said.

"Russia is deliberately endangering nuclear safety in Europe. We call for an urgent meeting of the IAEA Board of Governors to respond to these unacceptable risks," he wrote on Telegram late Saturday, referring to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Sybiha also urged China and India -- traditionally large buyers of Russian oil -- to pressure Moscow to cease its attacks.

- Winter without heat? -

Experts have said the strikes on energy infrastructure puts Ukraine at risk of heating outages ahead of the winter months.

Russia has targeted the power and heating grid throughout its almost four-year invasion, destroying a large part of the key civilian infrastructure.

The barrage overnight into Saturday was the ninth massive attack on gas infrastructure since early October, Ukraine's energy company Naftogaz said.

Kyiv's School of Economics estimated in a report that the attacks shut down half of Ukraine's natural gas production.

Ukraine's top energy expert, Oleksandr Kharchenko, told a media briefing Wednesday that if Kyiv's two power and heating plants went offline for more than three days when temperatures fall below minus 10C, the capital would face a "technological disaster".

Ukraine has in turn stepped up strikes on Russian oil depots and refineries in recent months, seeking to cut off Moscow's vital energy exports and trigger fuel shortages across the country.

T.Cusumano--INP