Austria is preparing for a possible blackout against the background of the war in Ukraine – Minister of Defense
The Austrian authorities are actively preparing for a possible large-scale blackout in the country against the background of the Russian Federation’s war against Ukraine.
Austrian Defense Minister Klaudia Tanner announced this in an interview with the German newspaper Die Welt.
In her opinion, the probability that power outages will occur in some parts of the European Union in the near future is very high.
– The question is not whether there will be a blackout, but when it will happen. The risk of large-scale power outages has increased significantly as a result of the war in Ukraine. For Putin, hacker attacks on Western energy systems are a means of hybrid warfare. We must not pretend that this is only a theory. We have to prepare for blackouts in Austria and other European countries, – Tanner stressed.
According to her, the Austrian authorities systematically inform the country’s residents about possible power outages. Military, police, firefighters, civil defense associations conduct regular joint exercises on how to act in blackout conditions. Sometimes trainings are held with the participation of municipalities and schools.
In public places in Austria, special brochures are distributed to people with advice on how to act in the event of a blackout, as well as how to prepare for it in advance (for example, store food).
In addition, information events are held in the country, during which electricity blackouts are simulated.
Tanner clarified that the Austrian army regularly conducts training in case of crisis situations with power outages.
The country plans to invest €180 million by 2025 in the creation of “safety islands” that will have sufficient electricity and will be able to operate autonomously for at least two weeks.
Even before the beginning of the full-scale war of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, European countries were preparing for possible long-term power outages in winter. This was due to the growing energy crisis, which was artificially created by Russia, limiting the supply of energy resources to the EU.
Then the Ministry of Defense of Austria published instructions for citizens in the event of a blackout.
Source: Die Welt