report
Russia repeatedly targets Ukraine’s energy supply. If a power plant is hit, workers risk their lives to try to repair the damage.
“Please only move around the site when accompanied. Photos or videos are only allowed after consultation,” says the man from the private Ukrainian energy operator DTEK. He keeps his name secret. The place where we are must also remain secret. The enemy should not receive any information important to the war effort. Even if this thermal power plant no longer supplies electricity after the attack.
We put on our protective clothing and walk to the power plant. A colossus, several hundred meters long. The walls are partly destroyed, the roof collapsed, the window panes are shattered. The metal remains of a Russian rocket lie on the ground in front of the power plant.
“A new model,” murmurs one. There were several rockets that hit here and devastated the power plant. One of the employees is still stunned:
What can I say? I don’t understand why they do this, it doesn’t get into my head. They are our neighbors, they have everything they need for a good life. Why are they shooting at us? I do not get it.
No coal or gas power plant was left unscathed
The logic behind the attacks on the power plants is clear: they are intended to wear people down, weaken industry and thus the country. There is no coal or gas power plant in Ukraine that has not yet been hit. Some were only partially damaged, others were completely destroyed. This one hit it hard.
We go into the hall. It smells like burning metal. The star with the letters SSSR is still emblazoned on an old generator. The facility dates back to Soviet times. Workers are busy clearing away the rubble of steel and concrete. Maksim is one of them: “At the moment we are helping to clear up the rubble. We are creating order and not sitting around doing nothing. We will come until the power plant is working again. Because if there is no electricity, it is bad for everyone. “
Hoping for spare parts from Western Europe
Maksim comes from the embattled Donetsk region, where he worked at a DTEK thermal power plant. Until it was destroyed. “Of course we’re afraid,” he says. “You go to work and don’t know whether you’ll come home. At my last place of work, we came under artillery fire as soon as we passed the gate. It’s good that we reacted quickly and ran to the air raid shelter.” There is fear, says Maksim, but they chose the job themselves: “Nobody is forcing us to do it.”
He hopes that spare parts will come quickly from Western Europe. And yet it will take months, perhaps years, to rebuild this. Of course, only if the power plant is not destroyed again in the meantime. In April alone, four DTEK thermal power plants were bombed, destroying 80 percent of the company’s energy infrastructure.
“At some point it will collapse”
The longer the attacks continue, the more difficult it will be for Ukraine to receive electricity as a whole. One of the employees draws a comparison with the Internet: “Imagine you have a router and 100 people have connected to it. In theory, everyone should have 100 Mbit speed. And if there are 100 people, that works. But if there are 200 or 1,000, then the internet is slow.” It’s the same with energy, says the man: “Less electricity and more consumers – at some point it will collapse.”
Then the sirens wail again. Air Alert. Around here it happens several times a day. Everyone has to go down to the shelter now. A thermal power plant is a dangerous place in Ukraine these days.