MOSCOW, January 19. /TASS/. The actual time for the restoration of Ukraine’s power grid will be up to three to four years, and Ukrainians should prepare for continued outages, Alexander Kharchenko, head of the Kiev-based Energy Industry Research Center, said.

According to him, outages will continue even after regular damage to power facilities ceases, "especially in winter and from July to August during peak power consumption hours." Equipment in Ukraine has significantly deteriorated, is frequently damaged, and is not properly repaired. It often has to be repaired promptly to ensure power supply to the population.

"Therefore, we will be actually restoring the power grid several years after the end of hostilities. And the realistic timeframe for a more or less substantial restoration is 3-4 years," Kharchenko said on the blog of Ukrainian Nazi and former head of the Odessa cell of the Right Sector (declared a terrorist organization, banned in Russia) Sergey Sternenko.

A state of emergency is currently in effect in Ukraine’s energy sector. Power outages lasting several hours are occurring daily in all regions of the country. In the event of grid overload, power system blackouts occur, and their duration is unlimited. As a result, supermarkets, cafes, and restaurants are suspending their work, and schools in some regions are extending holidays or switching to distance learning.