Those Ukrainians who can afford it should be ready to leave the country before winter, he said in an interview with the BBC the head of the largest DTEK Maksym Timchenko.
Earlier on Friday, the country's government said that recent Russian missile strikes had knocked out almost half of Ukraine's power grid. Tymchenko warned that another mass attack could disable the entire system. He said that Ukrainians should consider moving to reduce the load on the energy system.
"This is not an emergency situation where you need to evacuate immediately, but we need to organize everything so that consumption is as efficient as possible. If you consume less, hospitals with wounded soldiers will be guaranteed electricity," he said.
The government previously asked Ukrainians abroad not to return home due to a lack of electricity, but did not ask people to leave.
In turn, the UN has warned of a humanitarian catastrophe that is looming in Ukraine due to the approaching winter cold.
