ince March 2024 Ukraine has lost nine gigawatts of generating capacity, the national energy company Ukrenergo says. This is more than a third of the capacity Ukraine had before the full-scale invasion in February 2022. It is enough to power the whole of the Netherlands during peak hours of consumption – or Slovakia, Lavtia, Lithuania and Estonia combined, Ukrenergo reports.
"All state-owned thermal power plants are destroyed. All hydropower plants in our country are damaged by Russian missiles or drones," Ukrenergo spokeswoman Maria Tsaturian tells the BBC.
The lack of is made worse by rising temperatures in the summer, when Ukrainians turn on power-hungry air conditioning systems. To cope with the shortfall, Ukrenergo has had to implement a policy of sweeping power cuts across the country, which last for many hours a day every day. As a result, millions of Ukrainians have become increasingly reliant on fuel-powered generators or BESS electricity storage systems. The Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, has been experiencing lengthy power cuts, sometimes 12 hours a day.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow has had to launch the strikes in response to Ukrainian attacks in recent weeks on energy targets inside Russia.
"We need air defence and other defence support, not eye-closing and long discussions," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reports on the Telegram messaging app, condemning the attacks as "terror."
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