Speaking in an address to participants of the 30th Ibero-American Summit on November 5, Zelensky said Russian forces are using Shahed drones and missiles to strike even the energy equipment that sustains the operation of Ukraine's nuclear power plants.
He called on Spain and Latin American countries to help with supplies of transformers, power cables, electrical equipment, and diesel and gas generators. "We need equipment compatible with our power grid. And we need it fast," he said.
According to Zelensky, Kyiv is interested in transformers from Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and Colombia, power cables from Chile, and both from Spain. He asked partners to establish direct cooperation with companies and speed up delivery of equipment to Ukraine.
On November 4, Ukraine's Energy Ministry reported that Russian attacks on nuclear plant substations had forced the country to reduce generation capacity. On November 5, Kyiv experienced an almost complete blackout.
The most difficult electricity supply situation has developed in Kyiv and the surrounding region. Emergency outages are occurring in Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk, Kirovohrad, Kherson and other regions.
The New York Times, citing secret documents intercepted by Ukrainian intelligence services, reported that Russia expects to force Ukraine to capitulate this coming winter by disabling the energy system and leaving Kyiv, Kharkiv and Odesa without electricity, heating and water.
As the NYT noted, in the fifth year of the war Ukrainian power plants have lost the ability to operate at full capacity. Before the war, the combined capacity of the three thermal power plants supplying Kyiv was about 1.3 gigawatts; it has now fallen to roughly 500 megawatts.