Russian missiles struck nine power plants, affecting nuclear energy generation
A mass missile strike on Dec. 16 damaged nine power generation facilities in Ukraine (Photo:Ukrenergo / Facebook)
A Russian mass missile strike on Dec. 16 damaged about nine power plants in Ukraine, and limited the output of the country’s nuclear energy facilities, the Interfax-Ukraine news agency quoted Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko as saying.
“What we've already seen is damage to about nine generation facilities,” he said.
“We’re still verifying the damage. Accordingly, the substations that transmit power were damaged, which limited the output, primarily that by the nuclear power plants.”
According to Halushchenko, the losses caused by the missile strike are being analyzed, along with measures to boost power generation output as soon as possible.
“Now we’ll try to add the nuclear plants to the power grid as quickly as possible,” the minister emphasized.
At the same time, he noted the city of Kharkiv would face difficulties.
“I don’t want to name the facilities that were hit, we’ll try to restore them as soon as possible,” he said.
Halushchenko noted this is not the first time that Russian forces attempted to attack both generation and distribution facilities, calling their actions “another ordinary terrorist attack.”
The minister added that half of Ukrainian energy consumers cannot be serviced, confirming an earlier announcement by national power grid operator Ukrenergo.
"I ask citizens to be understanding about emergency blackouts and I assure that we’ll do everything and even more to restore (electricity supply) as soon as possible,” he said.
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