The latest round of Russian air raids have brought Ukraine’s energy grid to the brink, with officials admitting, and then denying, the severity of the problem.
The head of DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy firm, said that five of its six plants had been damaged or destroyed.
80% of the company’s generating capacity is lost, and repairs could take up as much as an year and a half!
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia was carrying out ‘vile strikes’ to ‘bleed’ the Ukrainian energy systems.
DTEK supplies about a quarter of the country’s energy, and has seen its thermal power stations and other facilities repeatedly hit by Russian missiles, drones and artillery.
Reuters reported:
“DTEK Executive Director Dmytro Sakharuk said in remarks shown on national television that waves of attacks on March 22 and March 29 had hit thermal and hydro production “in almost all regions” and that distribution facilities were destroyed.
‘To be specific, five out of six of our stations were severely damaged, some units were destroyed, some were damaged by 50% or more’, he said.
‘This applies to both the western regions and the central regions, and both the equipment necessary for the production of electricity and for transmission from the station to the grid were damaged’, he said.
His company suffered losses amounting to $300 million for equipment alone, he said, while labour costs would require as much as half as much again. ‘We have determined that 80% of the available generating capacity is not working now’, he added.”
Watch: Odessa goes ‘lights out’ after the bombing of the energy power plant.
— Paul Serran (@paul_serran) April 1, 2024
DTEK spent $110 million restoring infrastructure hit by Russian attacks last year, and two-thirds of that equipment was destroyed again.
The destruction will require months of repairs, he said, and in some cases as long as a year and half.
“‘It takes time to manufacture a turbine or a generator or a transformer, so you need be prepared for the fact that the power will return gradually’, he said.”
Watch DTEK Director Dmytro Sakharuk talk about the air raids againt the energy infrastructure (English Subtitles)
— Paul Serran (@paul_serran) April 1, 2024
Other excerpts:
“If we talk about March 22, then unfortunately, the two largest plants received the greatest damage during the entire war (Burshtynska TPP and Ladyzhynska TPP).
8 missiles arrived at each station. Moreover, unlike previous periods, last winter, the accuracy of the missiles is amazing. Running run METER. If earlier it was 100 meters, 200, 300, now they arrive meter by meter.
Unfortunately, it was not possible to shoot down these missiles and the consequences are simply colossal. There the field is clean, there are no roofs, no equipment, scorched earth…”
Another Reuters report sings a different song, as officials are rolled out to minimize the situation.
“Recent Russian attacks have caused significant damage to the Ukrainian power system, but a total collapse is unlikely, the head of Ukraine’s national grid company Ukrenergo Volodymyr Kudrytskyi said on Monday.
[…] “Their (the Russians’) goal is to impose blackouts in some major Ukrainian cities, and our goal is to prevent it,” Kudrytskyi told Reuters in an interview.
[…] The missile attacks have also significantly damaged the largest Ukrainian hydropower station in Zaporizhzhia, as well as the Kaniv and Dnister stations.”
But Kudrytskyi said that the country’s energy system was NOT near to collapsing.
“‘We are definitely not one step away from collapse. A collapse is an uncontrolled shutdown of most or the entire power system. This has not happened and will not happen, this scenario we consider as unlikely’, he said.”
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