Ukraine’s power production capacity is vanishing, and therefore so is its physical economy. Ukraine’s power generation has dropped from approximately 55 GW of installed electricity generating capacity, before Russia’s special military operation in February 2022, to a level “below 20 GW, due to bombardment or to Russian occupations taking those plants offline, according to Ukrainian officials,” Financial Times reported June 5, in an article, “Russia Has Taken Out Over Half of Ukraine Power Production.” Ukraine’s electricity generating capacity drop is 63.6%.
Already Russian missile and drone bombardment has destroyed 9.2 GW of Ukraine’s power generation since March, in retaliation for Ukraine’s attacks on Russian oil refineries and on Russian cities such as Belgorod. However, as early as April, Oleksandr Kharchenko, the director of Kyiv-based Energy Industry Research Center, estimated that Ukraine had lost 70-75% of its thermal power production and 35-40% of its hydroelectric production, reported Euromaidan Press on April 14. Some of these plants may take several years to replace.
