Ukraine State Emergency Service/Reuters
Firefighters battle a fire after a Russian attack on a power plant at an undisclosed location in Ukraine, April 11, 2024.
CNN
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The largest power plant in Ukraine's Kiev region was reportedly destroyed by a Russian missile attack on Thursday, as the Russian government steps up attacks on infrastructure.
Russian artillery fire caused a massive fire at the Trypilska Thermal Power Plant (TPP), and energy company Centrenergo said in a statement that it was still working to determine the cause of the fire in the plant's turbine workshop.
There were no casualties and the attack did not cause power outages in the Ukrainian capital Kiev or other areas served by the Trypilska TPP.
According to a statement from Centrenergo, the power plant was the largest supplier of electricity to the Kiev, Cherkasy and Zhytomir regions.
The company lost 100% of its power generation at three power stations, all of which were destroyed or occupied by Russia, marking a “dark day in Centrenergo's history,” the statement added.
During more than two years of war, Russia has systematically targeted Ukraine's energy infrastructure, frequently stripping the country of electricity, heat, water, and other essential services, undermining the country's power grid and, with it, the Ukrainian population. Trying to destroy your spirit. – Winter temperatures below freezing.
Ukraine's biggest power loss came shortly after the invasion, when Russian forces took control of Europe's largest Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, which previously accounted for about 20% of the country's electricity generation. Since then, Ukrainian staff have placed the power plant's reactor in “cold shutdown” to prevent a serious radioactive accident.
According to a statement from Centrenergo, the attack on the Trypilska plant follows a recent Russian attack that destroyed the company's plant in Zmivska TPP in the Kharkiv region on March 22. In July 2022, Russian forces captured the company's third power plant, Vuhlehirska TPP, located in the Donetsk region. The total design capacity of the three plants was 7,690MW, according to the company's website.
“As a result of today's massive attack, our entire power generation capacity has been destroyed,” the statement added.
Videos posted on social media showed huge plumes of smoke billowing from Trypilska TPP as fires continued to burn.
“The scale of the destruction is terrible. Money cannot estimate it. This is for us the biggest challenge in the history of the company. But we are confident that we can cope with it,” Centrenergo Audit said Andriy Gota, chairman of the board.
Svitlana Vlasova reported from Kiev and Caitlin Danaher wrote from London.