How recent Russian attacks on power plants have ravaged Ukraine’s energy system

This year, Russia has launched a deliberate and devastating series of attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. Taking advantage of gaps and shortages in Ukraine’s air defenses, Russia has systematically targeted nearly every single power plant in the country. As Amna Nawaz reports, officials say the last few weeks have been unlike any they’ve seen before in this war.
Amna Nawaz:
This year, Russia has launched a series of deliberate and devastating attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
Taking advantage of gaps and shortages in Ukraine’s air defenses, Russia has systematically targeted nearly every single power plant in this country. Officials here tell us the last few weeks have been unlike any they have seen before in this war.
An idyllic scene in the city of Ukrainka just outside of Kyiv, but the Russian attack here just three days earlier is fresh in Gennediy’s (ph) mind.
Gennediy, Ukraine (through interpreter):
It was about 5:00 a.m. Everybody woke up because it was a massive explosion, and then a few more explosions.
Amna Nawaz:
The 64-year-old local builder struggles to describe the moment.
Gennediy (through interpreter):
You need to hear it to understand it. You need to live through it.
Amna Nawaz:
The airstrikes destroyed their target, the Trypilska power plant, one of the country’s largest power plants and the main electricity source for three million people in the Kyiv region and surrounding areas. It’s also the center of this city’s livelihood.
Alina, Ukraine (through interpreter):
More than half the city’s population works at the power plant.
Amna Nawaz:
Nineteen-year-old Alina has lived here her whole life. She had a clear view of the attack and aftermath from her window at home.
What did you think when you heard the explosions that night?
Alina (through interpreter):
What’s going to happen in the city? Will the rockets come into the city? Will they hit houses? What will happen the next day with heat, with water?
Amna Nawaz:
In the early morning hours of April 11, Trypilska was one of multiple power plants hit by the Russians. That followed a March 29 attack on other power plants, which followed March 22 strikes also targeting Ukraine’s energy system.
Dmytro Sakharuk, CEO, DTEK:
They try, they test, they see the results, and just repeat.
Amna Nawaz:
Dmytro Sakharuk is executive director of DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy company. He says Russia has attacked power plants earlier in the war, but this year is different.
Dmytro Sakharuk:
The efficiency these days, unfortunately, is higher because of Russians develop their skills. And this is basically the third year of war. They improve the technology. They, I guess, install some more advanced guiding systems.
Amna Nawaz:
When you say efficiency, you mean they’re more efficient at causing more damage to…
(Crosstalk)
Dmytro Sakharuk:
Causing more damage, yes.
Amna Nawaz:
So far, an estimated 60 percent of Ukraine’s power-generating capacity may have already been impacted by Russian drones and missiles. Rolling blackouts have been imposed in several areas.
Everything was different.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukrainian President:
Everything. Everything was different.
Amna Nawaz:
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Ukraine’s inability to defend its energy infrastructure is a microcosm of larger battlefield challenges, as they face a critical artillery and air defense shortage.
At the Trypilska plant, he tells us, his forces intercepted seven of 11 Russian missiles, but they were four missiles short of saving the plant.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy (through interpreter):
When you’re running out of missiles, people are dying. Trypilska is just the most recent small example of a large challenge.
Amna Nawaz:
They were four missiles short. That is what made the difference between protecting that plant and that plant being destroyed. How often do you find yourself in that situation?
Dmytro Sakharuk:
I guess, all our plants, we’re in the same situation where, partially, the incoming missiles were intercepted and second wave or another part were not, and they just hit the target.
Amna Nawaz:
Sakharuk now keeps a flak jacket for facility visits. His teams have been issued the same.
Dmytro Sakharuk:
Like soldiers, basically. They have helmets. They have vests, even some — some armored vehicles.
Amna Nawaz:
They’re like soldiers on their own front line, then?
Dmytro Sakharuk:
It’s — we call it energy front line.
Amna Nawaz:
For Alina, who lives on that front line, Russia’s mission is clear.
Alina (through interpreter):
To destroy our nation, to destroy our moral spirit. But they won’t succeed at all.
Amna Nawaz:
They won’t succeed. Why not?
Alina (through interpreter):
Because they attacked the wrong people. We are much stronger than them. We have morals and less fear than them.
Amna Nawaz:
Gennediy says he was turned away twice from the military recruitment center, past their age 60 cutoff.
Gennediy (through interpreter):
When people are dying, when children are dying, women, how could you not be worried? As a father, I’m worried for my children.
Amna Nawaz:
This is hard for you to talk about.
Gennediy (through interpreter):
Well, you can hear it in my voice.
Amna Nawaz:
This father is now bracing to send his own son to fight in a war that’s already come to their home.
Gennediy (through interpreter):
We understand what it’s like to be without lights, without water, but we will survive. They don’t understand that.
Amna Nawaz:
Officials here are scrambling to repair any of the plants that they can and to keep power flowing into people’s homes.
But they say, until Ukraine can really defend its skies against those Russian drones and missiles, that no part of the country’s critical infrastructure is truly safe — Geoff.
Geoff Bennett:
And, Amna, as President Zelenskyy told you in the interview yesterday, Ukraine really needs Congress to approve aid to help fill the gaps in its air defense and replenish its artillery.
What’s been the response so far to Speaker Mike Johnson’s plan for separate bills for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan aid?
Amna Nawaz:
Yes, Geoff, no direct response to that proposal so far, but sort of an indirect response, if you will, in what’s become his nightly address to the nation.
Tonight, Zelenskyy reiterated some of the concerns he’s made to us as well about what he sees as a different standard for security for Israel and for Ukraine. In part, he had this to say.
He said: “The world must ensure true equality in the protection from terror, so, when we face the same terror and the same strikes from missiles and drones, the rules are equal in Ukraine, Europe and other parts of the world.”
Now, we know the president told us yesterday he found it strange that Republican lawmakers would separate out that Ukraine aid from the other bills, mainly because he said he got a firm commitment from Speaker Johnson when they spoke directly just a few weeks ago.
But a bit of news from the president’s office today. He is now requesting an urgent meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Council. That’s the joint body that was put together last year where NATO leaders and the president of Ukraine can meet to share and talk about shared concerns. And, of course, that says they’re seeking, full membership of NATO.
But we did ask Zelenskyy’s office for any additional comment about that aid proposal in the U.S. Congress. They say no comment for now. They say they’re going to watch how the process unfolds — Geoff.
Geoff Bennett:
Amna Nawaz in Kyiv tonight, it’s great to see you. Our thanks to you and the team there.
Amna Nawaz:
Thanks, Geoff.