On Thursday, Russian missiles and drones destroyed a large power plant near Kiev and attacked power facilities in several regions, putting pressure on Ukraine’s beleaguered energy system as its air defenses fall short. Officials announced that it had been strengthened.
The Trypilska coal-fired power plant near the capital was completely destroyed in a major attack more than two years after Russia’s full-scale invasion, a senior official at the company that operates the facility told Reuters.
Unverified footage shared on social media showed black smoke billowing from a fire at the massive Soviet-era facility.
“We need air defense and other defense support, not long discussions with closed eyes,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on the messaging app Telegram, condemning the attack as “terrorism.”
Kiev’s appeals for emergency air defense supplies from the West have grown more urgent since Russia resumed long-range air strikes against Ukraine’s energy systems last month.
The attacks, which hit thermal and hydroelectric power plants, raised concerns about the resilience of the energy system, which was hampered by Russian air operations in the first winter of the war.
The commander of Ukraine’s air force said that his air defense forces shot down 18 incoming missiles and 39 drones. A total of 82 missiles and drones were used in the attack, the military said.
The destroyed power plant on the outskirts of Kiev is the third and last facility owned by state energy company Centrenergo, the main electricity supplier to the Kiev, Cherkasy and Zhytomyr regions.
Asked about the situation at Centrenergo, Andriy Gota, head of the company’s supervisory board, said: “Everything has been destroyed.”
The Ukrenergo power grid operator announced that substations and power generation facilities were damaged in the attacks in the regions of Odessa, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Lviv and Kiev.
DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private power company, lost 80% of its power generation capacity in Russian attacks on March 22nd and March 29th, but two of the country’s power plants were attacked by Russian attacks, causing serious damage. He said he received it.
Energy company Naftogaz said the attack also hit two underground storage facilities where Ukraine stores natural gas, some of which are owned by foreign companies. It added that the facility remains operational.
“The situation in Ukraine is dire. There is no time to lose,” said US Ambassador Brigitte Brink, adding that 10 missiles had hit critical infrastructure in the Kharkiv region alone.
The Kharkiv region, which borders Russia, has already been subject to extended rolling blackouts, leaving 200,000 people without power, presidential aide Oleksiy Kuleba said.
Ukraine has warned that it could run out of air defense munitions if Russia continues to intensify its attacks and is already having to make difficult decisions about what to protect.
Ukraine said vital Western aid was slowing, with a major U.S. aid package blocked for months by Republicans in Congress.
Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Russia’s night attack used six ballistic missiles that could hit targets within minutes and were much harder to shoot down. Kiev says that’s why it needs U.S.-made Patriot air defenses.
“Ukraine is the only country in the world that still faces ballistic attacks. There is no other place for the Patriots at the moment,” Kuleba wrote on social media platform X.
