According to the Ukrainian Energy Ministry, the country's electricity imports have tripled, while electricity exports have been almost completely stopped. Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko had previously said that power generation facilities, along with transmission and distribution systems, were damaged across the country after the Russian military launched a fierce airstrike and missile attack - RT reported.
In a statement on Telegram on March 24, the Ministry of Energy said: "As of now, the expected import of electricity is 14,900 megawatt hours (MWh), while there is no expected export."
On March 23, Ukraine imported 12,784 MWh of electricity, while the country's daily electricity exports reached 1,033 MWh. Imports of electricity in previous days did not exceed 6,000 MWh.
The Ukrainian Energy Ministry added that Russia attacked an important energy infrastructure in the Lviv region on March 23, causing it to catch fire and go into disarray. Power lines in the Kiev region are believed to have been damaged by the attack, causing 1,400 households in the two settlements to temporarily lose power.
On March 22, a Russian missile attack on the Dnieper Hydropower Plant (HPP) in the Ukrainian-controlled city of Zaporizhzhia caught fire. Social media footage of the fire at a dam near the Dnieper Hydropower Plant shows.
According to Sergey Kovalenko, head of Yasno distribution company, the attack took away 50% of the power generation capacity of DTEK, Ukraine's largest private electricity company.
Meanwhile, widespread power outages have been reported in many parts of the country, including the regions of Kharkov, Odessa, Dnepropetrovsk, Vinnitsa, Lviv, Ivano- Frankivsk and Nikolaev. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky accused Moscow of using more than 60 drones and about 90 missiles of various types in the attack.
Commenting on the airstrikes, Russian lawmaker Mikhail Sheremet said they were in response to Ukrainian attacks on Russian civilians in Belgorod and other border areas, killing dozens.
Russia began targeting Ukraine's energy infrastructure in the fall of 2022 in retaliation for the strategic Crimean bridge bombing in October of the same year. Although Kiev initially denied responsibility, it later claimed that the attack was aimed at weakening Russia's logistics activities.
On March 25, head of the Security Service of Ukraine, Vasily Malyuk, said the agency was responsible for attacks on major Russian refineries. He added that these facilities, along with other Russian infrastructure facilities, are considered by Ukraine to be "legitimate targets".
