Ukrainian vitality CEO warns solely Trump can cease Russian strikes on energy grid

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Russian strikes on Ukraine’s energy grid will proceed with out President Trump stepping in, Ukraine’s high vitality government has warned, as hundreds of thousands threat a freezing winter with out energy.

DTEK's Maxim Timchenko spoke out as Ukraine braced for additional Russian drone and missile attacks on vitality infrastructure and a day after Trump met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for the third time to deliver an finish to the almost four-year conflict.

"Yesterday’s assembly gave us renewed hope. However our process is to not dwell from hope to hope — it's to proceed doing what we now have finished for 4 years: responding to quick challenges and combating each day," Timchenko advised Fox Information Digital.

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U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky shake palms at a information convention following a gathering at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago membership on December 28, 2025 in Palm Seaside, Florida. (Joe Raedle/Getty Pictures)

"We're deeply grateful to President Trump for his management. We consider he and his crew are the one ones who can drive Russia to barter and cease the conflict, along with the assist of our companions within the European Union and different international locations," the DTEK CEO mentioned.

Based by Ukrainian entrepreneur Rinat Akhmetov, DTEK is Ukraine’s largest private energy company and a spine of the nation’s energy provide.

Earlier than Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, the corporate operated eight thermal energy stations. Three have been later occupied by Russian forces.

"At the moment, we function five power stations , and every of them has been attacked at the very least 5 occasions for the reason that full-scale invasion," Timchenko confirmed.

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A vendor waits for patrons in a store throughout a partial blackout in Lviv on Nov. 28, 2024, following Russian strikes on Ukrainian vitality infrastructure amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Yuriy Dyachyshyn/AFP through Getty Pictures)

He described the injury as unprecedented. "The extent of destruction is incomparable to any vitality system on this planet. Nothing like this has occurred in fashionable historical past," he mentioned.

At one level, he mentioned, almost all of DTEK’s technology capability was broken or destroyed, with losses totaling a whole bunch of hundreds of thousands of {dollars}.

"And I can say that at some second of time, 90% of our technology capability was broken or destroyed," he defined.

"With this destruction, we misplaced a whole bunch of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in direct damages, and I do not even point out misplaced income. So, just for 2025, our restoration finances was about $220 million, however if you happen to take it from the start of the full-scale invasion, I say it is a whole bunch, a whole bunch of hundreds of thousands of {dollars}," Timchenko mentioned.

Regardless of the destruction and losses confronted, his firm has repeatedly restored energy to millions of Ukrainians .

"Since 2022, we now have managed to reconnect greater than 30 million households and shoppers," Timchenko mentioned. "We're combating and we're quick."

RUSSIA UNLEASHES MAJOR DRONE, MISSILE ATTACK ON UKRAINE AS US DIPLOMATIC TALKS CONTINUE

A drone hits an condominium constructing in Kyiv throughout Russia's assault on Ukraine on Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (Gleb Garanich/Reuters)

"For the final two years, it has been extraordinarily tough. Assaults have change into so intense and we dwell in disaster mode each single day as a result of our tools is destroyed, energy stations broken, and the one factor we're desirous about is methods to restore energy provide as quickly as doable," Timchenko mentioned.

He additionally added that restoration efforts embody resuming fuel drilling, persevering with development of Jap Europe’s largest wind park, and constructing a serious battery storage system with U.S. agency Fluence.

In any other case, in Odesa, for instance, round 600,000 folks have been affected by outages, with some neighborhoods left with out energy for days at a time.

However Russia’s most recent large-scale strike got here on Dec. 26, when missiles and drones hit Kyiv and surrounding areas, slicing electrical energy to greater than 1 million folks throughout freezing temperatures.

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DTEK says they've restored energy to 30 million Ukrainian households regardless of repeated Russian strikes on crucial vitality infrastructure. (Reuters)

"Folks have realized methods to dwell with out requirements like electrical energy," Timchenko mentioned.

"The temperature in Kiyv was minus 10 levels and due to this assault, we could not get water, we could not get warmth, and naturally, there is no such thing as a electrical energy.

"They attacked us with ballistic and Kalibr missiles and calibers, then 500 drones and different kinds of missiles," he added.

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Trying forward, Timchenko confused Ukraine’s dependence on continued assist.

"The vitality system is on the core of this struggle. Fashionable life merely can not exist with out electrical energy. We'd like continued world assist," he added.

Emma Bussey is a breaking information author for Fox Information Digital. Earlier than becoming a member of Fox, she labored at The Telegraph with the U.S. in a single day crew, throughout desks together with international, politics, information, sport and tradition.