During the last weeks of the war, Russian strikes targeted 80% of Ukraine’s thermal power plants and half of its hydroelectric power stations. “This is the biggest attack on Ukraine’s energy sector,” Ukraine’s Energy Minister reported.
Russian strikes have in recent weeks affected 80% of Ukrainian thermal power plants and half of hydroelectric power plants, the Ukrainian Minister of Energy reported Monday, denouncing “the largest attack” against the country’s energy sector.
The level of damage caused has not been confirmed
“We can say that up to 80% of thermal power plants were attacked, more than half of the hydroelectric power plants. And a large number of relay stations” of electrical transmission, declared Minister German Galushchenko in a press conference . The ministry’s press service told AFP that the thermal power plants had been “damaged” by these strikes, without however being able to specify the level of damage caused.
“This is the largest attack against the Ukrainian energy sector,” he added, referring to this wave of strikes which continues almost daily and has notably caused long power outages in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city. ‘Ukraine.
According to the minister, “the scale and impact” of this new wave of attacks “are much greater” than those of the campaign led by Moscow the previous winter, when millions of Ukrainians were deprived of electricity and heating in freezing temperatures. He stressed that the Russian army had modified the drones and missiles used for these bombings, making them “even more dangerous”.
Before the Russian invasion launched in February 2022, electricity production in Ukraine was relatively balanced between thermal power plants running on coal and gas and nuclear power plants, with a lower percentage of hydropower. The Ukrainian nuclear power plant in Zaporizhia (south), located in the region of the same name and the largest in Europe, has been occupied by Russia since the start of the war and no longer produces electricity.