Russia's weekend strikes badly hit Ukraine's biggest private power producer

By Tom Balmforth

Russia's weekend missile strikes hit three of the five working thermal plants owned by Ukrainian power giant DTEK and one of them is still offline, an industry source said, illustrating the severity of the latest blow to the national grid.

DTEK, which is Ukraine's largest private power producer and which provided a quarter of the country's electricity needs before Moscow's February 2022 invasion, has been hammered by a campaign of aerial assaults that Russia renewed in March.

After a pause in major strikes on the grid, Russia fired a salvo of more than 200 missiles and drones on Sunday, reigniting concern about the already hobbled energy system as winter sets in. The first snow fell in Kyiv on Thursday.

Disclosing details of the damage to DTEK for the first time, the source said that three power stations were damaged, one was still completely offline and it was unclear how long it would take to fully repair them.

The source said the two facilities that were partially damaged had resumed partial power generation.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday there had been hits to energy infrastructure but did not elaborate. Kyiv often withholds information about the scale of damage to prevent Russia using that data to better tailor its future assaults.

One energy official who declined to be named confirmed to Reuters that power generating facilities were attacked and damaged on Sunday and said distribution stations were also targeted.

Energy officials announced on Monday there would be hours-long rolling blackouts across the country for the first time in months, bringing back memories of the first winter of the war when water and power outages sometimes lasted for days.

Ukrainian officials say that Russia has accumulated hundreds of missiles to conduct more attacks, but have cautioned against doom-laden forecasts that they say play into Russia's hands and create a sense of panic.

'SEVERE DAMAGE'

The source declined to disclose numbers concerning the loss in capacity, saying they were too sensitive.

Maxim Timchenko, DTEK's CEO, has said "severe damage" was caused on Sunday and appealed to Ukraine's Western allies to supply more air defences to prevent more destruction.

Prior to Sunday's attack, DTEK had restored about half the capacity it had before strikes began in March, the company has said previously.

DTEK has six thermal power plants on Ukrainian-held territory. But one of them, in the embattled eastern town of Kurakhove that Russian troops are closing in on, has been dismantled so the parts can be used to repair other facilities.

Thermal stations, fuelled by coal and gas, traditionally account for a third of the country's overall electricity needs, the core of which is provided by nine units at three nuclear power plants in territory controlled by Kyiv.