Energy expert urges Ukrainians to stock up on power banks and generators, predicts hard winter

Oleksandr Kharchenko, Director of the Energy Research Centre, made a prediction on Espreso TV.

"I would advise all Ukrainians to prepare for the fact that the next winter will be difficult. The same or even more difficult than the last one. We cannot predict what will happen," he said.

Kharchenko added that the capacity of the power system is much lower than last year.

"We have a lot of broken equipment that cannot be repaired in a year - it takes a year to produce it. Accordingly, this equipment will not start again - it will not be in the system. When there are new strikes, we will no longer be able to conditionally disassemble a unit that is standing and not working and assemble it or two broken units into one whole. These two units will no longer exist physically. The winter will be very difficult. I would strongly advise all Ukrainians - if you have a generator: lubricate it, buy some fuel, get ready. Also, power banks and other tools to mitigate the situation during outages," the expert concluded.