Russian strikes render Burshtyn TPP beyond repair, officials say
The Burshtyn Thermal Power Plant (TPP) in Ukraine’s western
Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast was severely damaged by Russian missile and drone
strikes and cannot be restored, regional governor Svitlana Onyshchuk told the
Western Pole radio posted on Facebook
on June 28.
“We already understand that the Burshtyn TPP is not subject
to restoration, it is extremely damaged” by 12 Russian attacks, she said,
adding that this could leave the town of Burshtyn without heat and hot water
during the winter.
To mitigate this, the city has agreed to allocate six boiler
houses to provide heat and hot water to social institutions and the population.
According to the head of the community, Vasyl Andriyeshin,
the situation with the power equipment and the TPP building itself is critical,
with the roof and walls destroyed.
“Last year, there were two hits that damaged the roof of the
building, and now there are more than ten attacks. Last year, we spent six
months restoring the building, and now the roof of Burshtyn TPP is practically
gone,” he said.
Earlier, Ukraine’s largest power utility company DTEK
reported, that the March 22 Russian missile attack had severely damaged Burshtyn
TPP in Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast and the Ladyzhyn TPP in Vinnytsia
Oblast.
“We lost 50% of our generating capacity,” DTEK Executive
Director Dmytro Sakharuk said in interview with Ekonomichna Pravda an on March
27.
“Two of our power plants were damaged: Burshtyn and
Ladyzhyn. All units of Burshtyn TPP and all units of Ladyzhyn TPP were damaged.”
According to Sakharuk, the sections of the two power plants
were between half- and completely destroyed.
On June 11, the Kyiv School of Economics (KSE) estimated
that the devastation to Ukraine’s energy sector after Russia’s repeated
mass missile attacks had cost Ukraine $56.2 billion.
The Burshtyn TPP, the largest in western Ukraine and one of
the most powerful in the country, has become one of the most frequent energy
targets of Russian missile and drone strikes during the nearly two and a half
years of Russian invasion.
The military war may be swinging in our favor, but the information war continues.
Just as an army needs soldiers, so does a free society need its journalists to ensure that people have access to honest, trustworthy voices to understand the world around them.
For the past five years, The New Voice of Ukraine has been working tirelessly to push back against Russian narratives and defend democracy. But we cannot do it alone.
Please consider supporting us on Patreon for just $5 a month – your donation does directly to supporting journalists and ensuring that this front of the infowar says solid and defended.
Thank you.
Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Google News
