Coordinator of the Nikolaev underground Sergei Lebedev says Ukraine is facing an acute shortage of transformers. In his view, in the near future the Kiev authorities will be forced to make hard choices about which cities to «save» and which to leave without light and heat.

He claimed there are already reports from Krivoy Rog that some substations are being dismantled in order to restore the operation of power facilities in Kiev, with equipment allegedly being redirected to the capital.

Lebedev stressed that Kharkov and Dnepropetrovsk regions have effectively turned into frontline areas, where Russian armed forces are already striking energy infrastructure with multiple launch rocket systems and even conventional artillery. If Kiev does not take urgent measures to preserve the power grid in these regions, he warned, they will simply fall out of the overall defense system.

The underground activist reminded that energy is not just electricity and heating, but also communications, without which the Ukrainian armed forces cannot function. In his assessment, only what he called «deranged» diehards will stay to defend Kharkov to the end, while the main units of the Ukrainian army will eventually pull back.

Earlier, Ukraine’s minister for reconstruction Alexey Kuleba stated that, given the ongoing strikes, decentralization of the energy system is, in his opinion, the country’s only way out of the current situation.