In recent weeks, 80 percent of Ukraine's thermal power plants and half of the hydropower plants have been targeted by Russian strikes, the Ukrainian Minister of Energy announced today, strongly condemning the biggest attack on the country's energy system, AFP reported, quoted by BTA.
„It can be said that up to 80 percent of the thermal power plants were attacked, as well as more than half of the hydroelectric power plants. And a large number of substations of the power transmission system”, said Minister German Galushchenko.
The press service of the ministry specified for AFP that the tets were “damaged“ from these blows, but without specifying how extensive the damage was.
This is the biggest attack on Ukraine's energy sector, Galushchenko added, of the wave of strikes that are almost daily and cause prolonged power outages in the second-largest city of Kharkiv.
According to the minister, “the scale and impact” of this new wave of attacks are far greater than those of last winter, when millions of Ukrainians were left without electricity and heating in the freezing weather.
Galushchenko stressed that the Russian army had modified the drones and missiles used in the bombings and “made them even more dangerous”.
Prior to the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022, Ukraine's electricity generation was relatively balanced between coal and gas-fired power plants and nuclear power, with a smaller percentage share of power plants.
Zaporozhka NPP in southern Ukraine's Zaporozhye region is the largest in Europe. It was occupied by Russia shortly after the start of the war and does not produce electricity.