<div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><b>Russian strikes on Ukraine's energy facilities have destroyed half of its electricity generation capacity since winter, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday.</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Months of Russian strikes have caused severe energy shortages in Ukraine, leading to scheduled power outages and blackouts.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"As a result of the strikes of Russian missiles and drones, nine gigawatts of capacity have already been destroyed. The peak of electricity consumption last winter was 18 gigawatts. So half now doesn't exist," Zelensky told a conference in Berlin.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Zelensky also urged allies to supply more air defence systems, saying: "It is missile and bomb terror that helps Russian troops advance on the ground."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Air defence is the answer," he said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ukraine's state power operator said it was extending scheduled outages around the country because of increased consumption.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Today... the period of application of hourly outage schedules throughout Ukraine has been extended -- restrictions will be imposed from 2:00 pm to 11:00 pm," Ukrenergo said in a statement.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The company had announced outages on Monday between 4-10:00 pm and had said there would be outages on Tuesday between 2-7:00pm.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The reason is that consumption continues to grow. At the same time, due to extensive damage, Ukrainian power plants cannot produce as much electricity as before the attacks," the company said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Zelensky said the strikes showed Russian President Vladimir Putin was trying to "hone the practice of destroying energy facilities" including connections between the Ukrainian and European energy systems.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ukrenergo chairman Volodymyr Kudrytsky said last week that it could take "years" for Ukraine to restore its full generating capacity.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"We are dealing with an absolutely unprecedented scale of destruction," he said, adding that the capacity of thermal power plants was at a "historic" low with "virtually no hydroelectric power plant that has not been damaged."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"It is technically impossible to restore these damaged power plants quickly. It will take time: weeks, often months, sometimes years," he said in a media interview published on Ukrenergo's Telegram channel.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Asked whether Ukrainian energy facilities constituted legitimate military targets, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "Without a doubt, in concrete cases this has to do with military infrastructure". AFP</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>