Two thermal power plants in western Ukraine were severly damaged in Russian missile attacks last week, with repair works expected to take months, the operator said on Thursday, according to media reports.
"The power plant units have been destroyed to varying degrees," the managing director of energy company DTEK, Dmytro Zakharuk, was quoted as saying. While in some cases, more than 50% were destroyed, some units at the Burshtyn thermal power plant in the Ivano-Frankivsk region and the Lyshyn plant in the Vinnytsia region were completely destroyed, he said.
Taken together, the two plants have a capacity of 4,200 megawatts.
According to the energy firm's director, repairing the plants is expected to take months and would hardly be feasible without international support.
"Perhaps one or two blocks can go into operation earlier, but a total of 6, 12, 24 or more months will be needed," Zakharuk said.
According to initial estimates, more than €185 million ($199 million) will be needed for major equipment alone.
Zakharuk described the Russian missile attack last Friday in which the plants were damaged as the most serious since the start of the all-out invasion of Ukraine launched by Moscow on February 24, 2022.
The Kurakhove thermal power plant in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk has also been rendered inoperational following heavy Russian bombardment.
During its more than two-year-old attack on Ukraine, Russia has repeatedly targeted the country's energy infrastructure.
As a result, electricity grid operator Ukrenerho says it has had to introduce scheduled power cuts in the Kharkiv region, while the power supply is also at risk in the Odessa and Khmelnytskyi regions. Ukraine currently imports electricity from five western neighbours.