Huge attack destroys power plant
AMASSIVE missile and drone attack destroyed one of Ukraine’s largest power plants and damaged others, officials said. The Trypilska plant, which was the biggest energy supplier for the Kyiv, Cherkasy and Zhytomyr regions, was struck numerous times, destroying the transformer, turbines and generators and leaving the plant ablaze.
As the first drone approached, workers hid in a shelter which saved their lives, according to Andrii Gota, chairman of the supervisory board of the state company Centrenergo which runs the plant.
They watched the plant burn, surrounded by dense smoke and engulfed in flames. “It was terrifying,” Gota said.
Russian president Vladimir Putin cast the attacks on Ukrainian energy facilities as a response to Ukrainian strikes that targeted Russian oil refineries.
The Trypilska plant supplied electricity to three million customers but none lost power because the grid was able to compensate since demands are low at this time of year.
Nevertheless, the consequences of the strikes could be felt in the coming months, as air conditioning use ramps up during the summer.
At least 10 other strikes overnight into yesterday damaged energy infrastructure in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second- largest city. Foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said more than 200,000 people were without power.
Ukraine’s largest private energy operator, DTEK, said the slew of strikes was one of the most powerful attacks this year. Energy minister Herman Halushchenko told reporters that it was a “largescale, enormous, missile attack that affected our energy sector very badly”.