Ukraine signals no major power problems after Russia attacks

Ukraine's energy minister and the national power grid operator signalled on Thursday that overnight Russian air strikes had not caused major disruption to electricity supplies.

Energy Minister German Galushchenko said Ukraine was meeting consumer demand for the fifth successive day. Grid operator Ukrenergo said it saw no need to introduce emergency power outages to conserve supplies.

Ukrainian officials issued no reports of major damage after the latest in a wave of Russian attacks on energy infrastructure.

"Today's attack will not change our plans to not conduct outages during the day," Ukrenergo chief Volodymyr Kudrytskyi told a news briefing.

Galushchenko, who repeatedly praised the speed at which repairs are carried out after Russian air strikes, was quoted by his ministry on Facebook as saying "a certain power reserve has emerged."

Kudrytskyi echoed this, saying: "Time is currently on the side of Ukraine's energy system."

He said the energy situation could remain "stable" if Ukraine does not suffer damage to energy infrastructure on the same scale as in the autumn, when Russia stepped up attacks on energy facilities and caused widespread blackouts.

"We have improved the situation but we are still far off absolute stability," he said.