Due to ongoing military operations and constant attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure, about 80% of the country's energy facilities have been damaged or destroyed. This situation poses one of the greatest threats to the country - winter frosts, which could be fatal for many Ukrainians.
The Sunday Times writes about this.
With temperatures below zero, Ukraine is facing deadly winter frosts. Hundreds of thousands of people will spend up to six hours in the dark every day without heat or water, the publication notes, citing the former head of the reconstruction agency, Mustafa Nayem, who accuses the government of deliberately delaying the implementation of an energy protection project.
According to Nayem, the government blocked the allocation of money for the project out of personal vested interests. His team suspects that the project was delayed because the Prime Minister's Office did not bribe officials "who hold the wallet" and, moreover, the Ukrainian government did not pay the contractors, who stopped work.
Serhiy Sukhomlin, who replaced Nayem, said the contractors were expecting “too much profit” and his department is now reviewing their contracts. Some of the protective structures are being “reworked” to cut costs, he said.
For their part, the contractors said they were trying to continue building the bunkers, but without government funding, they were forced to take out loans to finance the minimum amount of work to continue construction, and that the structures were still far from complete.
Currently, to prevent the collapse of its energy system, Ukraine relies on “first and second level” defenses of gabions supplied by the UK – primitive mesh cells filled with rubble, large concrete protective arches, as well as a number of modern air defense systems provided by Western partners.
