'We know what Russia is preparing for': Zelenskyy warns of strike risk on Easter

Zelenskyy stated that Ukraine has gone through its third winter of full-scale war without blackouts. According to him, the country's energy system has been preserved despite challenges, threats, outages, and losses.

The head of state emphasized that this was made possible thanks to the efforts of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians — those who defend energy facilities, restore them after attacks, carry out repairs even under fire, build the necessary infrastructure for protection, and ensure the operation of power plants and networks. He stressed that this is a major achievement of the Ukrainian people.

"Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have done their part to ensure that Ukraine did not lose its energy sector. Of course, this does not mean the threat is gone. We know what Russia is preparing for. We have information from our special services, from intelligence. Now, and both before and after Easter, new Russian strikes are possible," he said.

At the same time, the president assured that Ukraine will continue to defend itself and its energy infrastructure.

"But this defense is not only in air defense missiles, not only provided by the military. Everyone who works diligently and effectively in every community, in every region of our country — we are grateful to all of them for keeping Ukraine powered, for helping Ukraine recover," he emphasized.

According to Zelenskyy, today, on April 17, he thanked Ukrainian energy workers and awarded them with state honors.

Situation in the energy sector

Since the beginning of the full-scale war, Ukraine's energy infrastructure has been regularly targeted by enemy attacks.

As a result, many regions, particularly Sumy, Kharkiv, Odesa, and Dnipropetrovsk, have frequently experienced power outages.

To reduce the load on the grid and avoid large-scale accidents, energy workers have at times been forced to implement both emergency and preventive power outage schedules.

It is important to highlight that due to constant Russian strikes, Ukraine’s power system is in a critical condition, which significantly complicates its stable operation.

Because of this, there has recently been public discussion about the possible return of rolling blackouts and even scheduled hourly outages due to a sharp drop in temperatures. During periods of heavy use of heating devices, the strain on the overall power grid increases significantly.