Russia’s frequent airstrikes on Ukraine’s power grid have caused days-long outages of electricity, water and heating during a winter that has seen temperatures sink below minus 20 degrees Celsius (-4 Fahrenheit).
Across the riverside capital Kyiv, many cafes, restaurants and other small businesses have closed, unable to withstand the financial strain in a bleak wartime economy. Those that remain open rely mostly on costly generators parked on the sidewalks, spewing fumes and noise.
Most Ukrainian businesses had already procured alternative power sources to survive previous winters of Russian strikes, said Nataliia Kolesnichenko, senior economist at the Centre for Economic Strategies, a Kyiv think tank. But they remain vulnerable to the expense of having to run generators and surging mains electricity tariffs as demand far outstrips supply.
Ukraine’s energy minister said last week that power demand was about a third larger than supply capacity – an improvement from the depths of January’s extreme cold.
Kolesnichenko said the power crisis is the latest setback for small businesses already grappling with wartime labour shortages and safety risks to premises and supply chains. Small firms employ about half of Ukraine’s workforce, and closures could lead to higher unemployment and emigration.
Source: Reuters.
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