Russia has destroyed 80% of Ukraine’s power plants in recent weeks

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmigal said this Friday that Russian military forces have systematically bombed the country’s energy facilities, destroying 80% of coal-fired power plants in recent weeks.

“They continue to shoot at our energy facilities, destroying transformers and generators. Unfortunately, in recent weeks Russia has destroyed 80% of coal power plants,” Smigal said in an interview with the Estonian TV channel ERR.

Smigal said Estonia could help Ukraine with energy issues because it still has Soviet equipment from when both countries were part of the Soviet Union, which collapsed in 1991.

“It would be very helpful for us if we could have these spare parts to rebuild these parts of our plants and power plants, to restore some of these facilities,” he said.

The Ukrainian leader also said that Kyiv is working with other partners to “create a decentralized energy supply system” for the population.

“Currently, we are experiencing interruptions in the supply of electricity to both the population and industry. Unfortunately, this is true. Russia continues its terror,” he said.

Szmigal expressed optimism about the Ukrainian economy, despite the war with Russia.

He said gross domestic product (GDP) rose 5% in 2023 after falling 30% after the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022.

“Since the beginning of large-scale aggression, we have lost 30% of our economy in the literal and physical sense, we have lost textiles, factories, occupied agricultural lands and lost more than 30% of our GDP,” he said.

According to the Prime Minister of Ukraine, with GDP growth in 2023, the Ukrainian economy “will more or less begin to return to normal.”

Szmigal also said that Ukraine has lost “3.5 million jobs” since the start of the war and that the government has launched a program to support small and medium-sized businesses and the creation of micro-enterprises.

“These are very small subsidies, from 2,000 to 5,000 euros, that we provide to people who want to set up a small family business, which has allowed us to survive and create the basis of our economy,” he said.

According to Smigal, Ukraine has the support of several partners, such as the United States and the European Union, with its own support instrument.

“This instrument provides 7 billion euros for the implementation of projects, for restoration, and I think that this will not bring bad results for the development of our economy and the increase in our GDP,” he added.