By Tom Balmforth
KIEV (Reuters) – Russian missiles and drones destroyed a large power plant near Kiev and hit power plants in several regions of Ukraine on Thursday, officials said, increasing pressure on the ailing energy system as Kiev runs short of air defenses.
The major attack, more than two years after Russia’s full-scale invasion, completely destroyed the Trypilska coal-fired thermal power plant near the capital, a senior official at the company that runs the plant told Reuters.
Footage shared on social media showed a fire raging in the large Soviet-era structure and black smoke billowing from it. Reuters was able to confirm the location of the video as Trypilska station.
“We need air defense and other defensive support, not long discussions that turn a blind eye,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Telegram, condemning the attacks as “terrorism.”
The Russian Defense Ministry said it struck fuel and energy facilities in Ukraine in what it described as a massive retaliatory strike using drones and long-range high-precision weapons from the air and sea.
The attacks were a response to Ukrainian drone attacks on Russia’s oil, gas and energy facilities, he said.
Kiev’s calls for urgent air defense supplies from the West have become increasingly desperate since Russia renewed its long-range airstrikes against Ukraine’s energy system last month.
The attacks, which hit thermoelectric and hydroelectric plants, raised fears about the resilience of an energy system that was hampered by a Russian air campaign in the first winter of the war.
The Ukrainian air force commander said air defenses shot down 18 of the incoming missiles and 39 drones. The attack used 82 missiles and drones in total, the military said.
The destroyed power plant outside Kiev, a major energy supplier for the capital and the Cherkasy and Zhytomyr regions, is the third and final plant owned by state energy company Centrenergo.
“Everything is destroyed,” said Andriy Gota, head of the company’s supervisory board, when asked about the situation at Centrenergo.
The Trypilska plant was the largest power plant near Kiev and was built to have a capacity of 1,800 megawatt hours, more than the pre-war needs of Ukraine’s largest city.
SAY SITUATION
Grid operator Ukrenergo said its substations and power generation facilities were damaged in the attacks in the Odessa, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Lviv and Kiev regions.
Ukraine’s largest private power company, DTEK, which lost 80% of its generating capacity in attacks on March 22 and 29, said Russia’s attacks hit two of its power plants, inflicting severe damage.
On Thursday afternoon, Russian forces attacked a thermoelectric power plant in the Sumy region of northern Ukraine with guided bombs. The extent of the damage was not immediately clear, although the regional administration said there were no casualties.
The strikes also targeted two underground storage facilities where Ukraine stores, some of them owned by foreign companies, energy firm Naftogaz said. The facilities continued to operate, he added.
“The situation in Ukraine is terrible; there is not a moment to waste,” US Ambassador Bridget Brink said, adding that 10 missiles hit critical infrastructure in the Kharkiv area alone.
The grid operator issued a statement on Thursday urging Ukrainians to minimize electricity use during evening rush hours so as not to overload the system.
The Kharkiv region, which borders Russia and where long blackouts are already underway, has been forced to cut electricity to 200,000 people, presidential aide Oleksiy Kuleba said.
Ukraine has warned that it could run out of air defense munitions if Russia maintains the intensity of its attacks and that it is already making difficult decisions about what to defend.
There has been a slowdown in vital Western assistance and a major US aid package has been blocked by Republicans in Congress for many months, Ukraine said.
Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Russia’s overnight attack used six ballistic missiles, which can hit targets within minutes and are much harder to shoot down. Kiev says this is why it needs US-made Patriot air defenses.
“Ukraine remains the only country in the world facing ballistic attacks. At the moment there is no other place for ‘patriots’ to be,” Kuleba wrote on X.