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The AP was given access on the condition that the location of the facility, technical details of the damage and workers’ full names are not published due to security concerns. DTEK says it has lost 80 percent of its electricity-generating capacity in almost 180 aerial attacks since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. It estimates that repairing all the damaged plants would take between six months and two years—even if there are no more strikes.
Russia pummeled Ukraine’s energy infrastructure to devastating effect during the “blackout winter” of 2022-2023. In March it launched a new wave of attacks, one of which completely destroyed the Trypilska power plant near Kyiv, one of the country’s biggest. DTEK executive director Dmytro Sakharuk said in March that out of 10 units the company had repaired after earlier strikes, two-thirds had been hit again.