FT: Damage to Ukraine's energy grid worse than in 2022-23 but more localized
Russian forces used freshly-made missiles for large-scale attacks on Ukraine in March, Andrii Cherniak, a spokesperson of Ukraine's military intelligence, told the Financial Times (FT) in a comment published on April 8.
Moscow has recently intensified its missile and drone strikes against Ukraine's critical infrastructure, launching large-scale attacks on energy facilities across the country. Over the past month, Russian forces reportedly launched over 400 missiles and 600 Shahed-type drones.
Russia has used drones as cheaper weapons for striking other parts of the energy system, such as transformers, Cherniak said. He estimated that Moscow has enough missiles to carry out one or two more "big attacks in the coming weeks."
"We expected the attacks at the beginning of the winter, but we now see that the missiles they have used are freshly made," he told the FT.
Ukrainian officials said the damage to energy infrastructure caused by Russia is worse than in the winter of 2022-2023, although it is more localized, according to the newspaper.
Martin Fornusek
In March, Russian attacks reportedly damaged or completely destroyed 80% of the thermal generating capacity of DTEK, Ukraine's largest private energy company.
Maksym Timchenko, the chief executive of DTEK, told the FT that the company's goal is to restore "as much as we can by October."
Between March 22 and 29, Russian forces targeted seven thermal power stations, the FT reported. Russia's March 22 strike destroyed the Zmiiv Thermal Power Plant, which is among the largest in Kharkiv Oblast, according to the state-owned energy company Centrenergo.
Recent attacks also damaged all power units of the Burshtyn Thermal Power Plant in Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast and the Ladyzhyn Thermal Power Plant in Vinnytsia Oblast, DTEK's Executive Director Dmytro Sakharuk said.
Among Moscow's other targets in March were the Kaniv Hydroelectric Power Plant in Cherkasy Oblast, the Dnister Hydroelectric Power Plant in Chernivtsi Oblast, and Zaporizhzhia's Dnipro Hydroelectric Power Plant.
Kateryna Denisova
