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“The Cycle Keeps Repeating”: Russia Destroys Ukraine’s Power Plants Again After Repairs
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Russian attacks since October 2025 have damaged 8.5 gigawatts of Ukraine’s power generation capacity, including thermal and hydropower plants, Ukraine’s Economy, Environment and Agriculture Minister Oleksii Sobolev said at the Ukrainian House in Davos on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum, Interfax reported on January 20.
“Much of this capacity was restored and then attacked and destroyed again—and this cycle keeps repeating,” Sobolev said. He stressed that protecting energy infrastructure would be cheaper than rebuilding it, but Ukraine lacks sufficient air defense systems.
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To cover the shortfall, Ukraine is currently importing a record 1.9 GW of electricity from Europe, according to the minister.
At the same time, continued strikes during what he described as one of the coldest winters in years have left thousands of homes in Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, and the Ukrainian capital Kyiv without electricity, water and heating.
Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said that the city is facing an extremely difficult situation, unprecedented in scale over four years of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, as the capital struggles to restore heating and electricity after recent Russian mass attacks on infrastructure.
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The government is prioritizing household energy supply, Sobolev said, but businesses also require power. “We need to get through this difficult part of the winter. We need equipment, and our reserves are exhausted,” he said, adding that urgent needs amount to $1 billion for generation capacity, mobile substations, backup systems and other equipment.
Ukraine is currently operating generators with a combined capacity of more than 1 GW, which are helping keep businesses running, but Sobolev warned that extreme cold is creating additional challenges and that more equipment is urgently needed.
Earlier, Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) has classified Russia’s systematic strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure as crimes against humanity, citing extensive evidence that the attacks are aimed at destroying civilian living conditions.
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