Ukraine’s government updates list of sites exempt from rolling blackouts

Source: the Ukrainian government website

The Ukrainian government said on Tuesday it has added more facilities to the priority list of essential customers who will be exculded from controlled rotating power outages. Under the new rules, power cut schedules will no longer apply to security and defense facilities or mobile network operators.

Key facilities that now receive priority for electricity supply include:

  • Security and Defense Facilities: They are listed by relevant authorities or executive bodies overseeing military units.
  • Telecommunications Infrastructure sites, including technical and structural elements of electronic communications networks, as identified by the National Center for Operational and Technical Network Management.

These sites will have priority power supply until June 1, 2025, and are exempt from scheduled hourly outages.

In addition, the priority list will include the entities classified as critical infrastructure sites:

  • Critical Infrastructure with a Minimum Power Requirement of 100 kW: These facilities are part of the National Register of Critical Infrastructure.
  • Border and Conflict Zone Areas: The exemption is still in place for the communities located within 20 kilometers of the Belarus and Russian borders, as well as those near active combat zones.

In 2025, the deadliest year yet for civilians, Ukraine’s three largest charitable foundations raised a record 105.9 billion hryvnias. It is more than the years 2022–2024 combined. According to the UN, humanitarian aid in Ukraine was delivered by more than 450 organisations, reaching five million people over the course of the year. Civic foundations hold licences to purchase lethal weapons, which is a function states have monopolised for centuries. These record sums were underwritten by international government grants, which means foreign states now channel billions directly through Ukrainian civic funds, bypassing inter-state channels. It is hard to imagine a stronger institutional trust in civil society.

During the GLOBSEC Defence Forum 2026 in Prague, representatives of “Steel Front”, an initiative by Rinat Akhmetov, discussed with NATO delegations, military officials, and representatives of the European defense industry the lessons learned from Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine.

After the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022, Ukraine witnessed an unprecedented wave of private support for the army. Citizens, big businesses, charitable foundations, and international philanthropists began financing the country’s defense alongside state assistance provided by international partners. Estimates of total private contributions range from tens to hundreds of billions of hryvnias. However, determining the exact amount remains difficult. In many cases, companies combine military aid, humanitarian programs, tax payments, social spending, and employee support in their reporting.

Rinat Akhmetov’s military initiative, “Steel Front”, has delivered a batch of drones worth UAH 214 million to the 1st “Azov” Corps of the National Guard of Ukraine. This shipment is part of the Metinvest Group’s ongoing support for the unit in 2025.

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