Russian City Freezes After Electricity Fails

A power outage in Russia's Siberia region left almost half of the city of Omsk without power amid subzero temperatures.

Vladimir Shnipko, Omsk's minister of energy and housing and communal services said there was an emergency shutdown at the Tavricheskaya substation. On Wednesday at around 5 p.m. local time, the lights suddenly went out in several areas of Omsk, including in both central regions of the city, and in rural areas, local media reported.

There have been large-scale power outages nationwide since the new year, leaving Russians to grapple with freezing temperatures as authorities work to restore heat to homes. Power outages have also struck St. Petersburg, Rostov, Volgograd, Voronezh, Primorsky Territory, Yekaterinburg and Novosibirsk in Siberia.

Omsk's regional governor, Vitaly Khotsenko, said that power has been restored in the Lyubinsky, Sargatsky, Tarsky and Ust-Ishimsky municipal districts of the region. "Energy workers continue to work," he said.

Local authorities were cited by Russia's state-run news agency as saying that most consumers who received electricity from the Tavricheskaya substation had their power restored within 30 minutes.

"The power supply to consumers of the 500 kV Tavricheskaya substation was completely restored in less than two hours. Most of it was powered within half an hour. The emergency automatics were activated at the substation. There was no damage to the equipment of the power facility," the news agency was told.

Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine's minister of internal affairs, shared a video on X, formerly Twitter, purportedly showing Omsk in darkness amid the power outage.

"Russians are ready to freeze without electricity and heat but continue supporting Putin and the 'special military operation'," he wrote, referring to the Kremlin's term for its ongoing war in Ukraine.

Newsweek has contacted Russia's foreign ministry for comment by email.

Elsewhere, approximately 25 percent of Moscow region was affected by power outages this week after a heating main burst at the Klimovsk Specialized Ammunition Plant in the town of Podolsk, which is around 30 miles south of central Moscow on January.

Affected areas included the cities of Khimki, Balashikha, Lobnya, Lyubertsy, Chekhov, Naro-Fominsk, and Podolsk, a map published by a Russian Telegram channel and shared on other social media sites showed.

Other Russian media outlets reported that in Moscow, residents of Balashikha, Elektrostal, Solnechnogorsk, Dmitrov, Domodedovo, Troitsk, Taldom, Orekhovo-Zuyevo, Krasnogorsk, Pushkino, Ramenskoye, Voskresensk, Losino-Petrovsky, and Selyatino are also without power.

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