Russia increases attacks on Ukrainian power plants

By Olga Robinson, Paul Brown and Adam Durbin
BBC Verify

1 hour ago

image description, In March, a rocket attack hit one of the main power plants in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city.

Power outages occurred in several regions of Ukraine following the recent wave of Russian attacks on the country’s energy infrastructure.

BBC Verify has been tracking Russian attacks on energy targets in recent months, and industry experts said Russia had changed its strategy and specifically targeted power plants to disrupt Ukrainians’ energy supplies.

In social media posts, Mr. Zelensky said Russia fired more than 50 missiles and 20 drones on Tuesday, hitting facilities in the Lviv, Vinnytsia, Kiev, Poltava, Kirovohrad, Zaporizhia and Ivano-Frankivsk regions.

Ukraine’s state-owned electricity company Ukrenergo said there were new power outages in nine regions and warned on Wednesday evening of possible blackouts across the country due to the new damage and ongoing fighting.

image source, X/@ZelenskyyUa

image description, President Zelensky shared this photo of damage to an unidentified power plant on Tuesday

Prior to the recent Russian attacks, our analysis found damage to 12 facilities, and Ukrainian authorities have reported at least a dozen additional attacks, with impacts ranging from significantly reduced capacity to complete shutdown.

On March 22, there were a series of airstrikes on power plants across Ukraine.

According to the state energy company Centrenergo, a thermal power plant in Kharkiv was destroyed. An image we reviewed shows a hole in the center of the building that served Ukraine’s second largest city.

Russia also hit private company DTEK’s two power plants – one in Ladyzhyn in central Ukraine and one in Burshtyn in the west. DTEK said at the time, without elaborating, that some of its facilities had been completely destroyed and others were operating at about 50% capacity.

You can see the extent of the damage to the Ladyzhyn power plant in satellite images before and after the attacks.

Other key facilities we believe were affected that day include Ukraine’s largest hydroelectric power plant in Zaporizhzhia, where a fire broke out at the facility on the giant dam spanning the Dnipro River.

A week later there were strikes against three different hydroelectric power plants.

Footage posted on social media on March 29 showed two large explosions at the Kremenchuk hydroelectric power plant in central Ukraine, although satellite images of them do not provide conclusive information about the extent of the damage.

A third wave of attacks occurred on April 11, including the destruction of the Trypillya power plant in Kiev. Footage of it engulfed in flames went viral on social media and received widespread media coverage.

This is the only attack BBC Verify could confirm that night, but Ukrainian authorities also reported damage to facilities in Sumy, Zaporizhzhia and Odessa.

Further hits were reported on April 27th and again on May 8th, but so far we have not been able to find any detectable recordings.

This is primarily because publishing images or videos of attacks on key infrastructure in Ukraine is prohibited under martial law.

Russia has carried out frequent and widespread attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure since its full-scale invasion began in 2022, but an expert told BBC Verify that its tactics have changed in recent months.

Volodymyr Omelchenko, director of energy programs at the Ukraine-based think tank Razumkov Center, said Russian forces had targeted larger power generation infrastructure instead of smaller substations because power plants take longer to repair.

By mid-April, he said Ukraine had lost more than 80% of all heat generation capacity, in addition to the destruction of Ukraine’s largest hydroelectric power plant.

Mr. Omelchenko added that he believes the attacks are aimed at causing a “socio-economic collapse” in Ukraine that will make living in the country and running a business virtually impossible.

“Moscow hopes that the collapse of the energy sector will force millions of people to leave the country,” he warned.

image description, A power plant damaged by recent Russian missile attacks at an undisclosed location

Another energy industry expert told BBC Verify that the focus on thermal and hydroelectric power plants is also intended to reduce the flexibility of Ukraine’s grid, as they can provide electricity regardless of the time of day or weather conditions.

According to Olena Lapenko of the DiXi Group think tank, the damage to the facilities meant Ukraine’s national energy company was forced to import electricity from neighboring countries to meet peak demand in the evening.

It believes the missiles targeted turbines and generators – elements that are the most complicated to repair and the most expensive to replace.

“The Russians’ goal is obvious: to plunge Ukraine into darkness and leave the Ukrainian economy without power, undermining defense capabilities.”

The Ukrainian military also responded in recent months with its own series of drone strikes on Russian oil depots and refineries, which BBC Verify previously investigated.

Additional reporting by Benedict Garman and Joshua Cheetham.

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