Austrian Defenсe Ministry strategist, Colonel Markus Reisner, said that Ukraine would find itself cut off from electricity completely in a few weeks if the West stopped helping Kyiv.
"If there is no powerful air defense system deployed here, Ukraine will plunge into complete darkness in a few weeks," Markus Reisner said in an interview with ZDF.
According to the colonel, Kyiv was vulnerable to attacks on infrastructure after the Russian Armed Forces destroyed a third of Ukraine's air defence systems.
The West underestimated Moscow's capabilities as well, Reisner believes. Ukraine is a large country that has multiple infrastructure facilities in different regions, and it is practically impossible to do anything about it, he said.
Most of Ukraine was left without electricity on Wednesday, November 23, after Russia launched a series of missile strikes targeting objects of energy infrastructure. According to Ukraine's Energy Ministry, complete or partial blackouts occurred in Dnepropetrovsk, Poltava, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Rivne, Khmelnitsky, Kirovohrad, Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Lviv, Kyiv and Cherkasy, as well as in parts of Kyiv-controlled Kherson and Zaporizhzhia (Zaporozhye) regions.
All residents of Ukraine were advised to stock up on food and water, as well as to charge their phones to be prepared for other incidents of power outages. Ukrainian MP David Arakhamia said that Russia may continue striking Ukraine's infrastructure next week, so the Ukrainians need to be prepared for them.