At about 8 p.m. local time, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation launched missile strikes on the largest thermal power plants in eastern and central Ukraine (story not yet confirmed by Russian Ministry). As a result several regions of Ukraine were left without water and electricity.

According to the local reports, the Kharkiv CHPP-5 and Zmievskaya CHPP in the Kharkiv region, the Pavlograd CHPP-3 in the Dnipropetrovsk region, the Kremenchug thermal power plant in the Poltava region were hit but Russian missiles. The collapse of the general power system has spread to the networks of Kharkiv, Sumy, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporozhye and Odessa regions. It also affected the areas of Donetsk regions controlled by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the Kiev region and the capital of the country. The missiles were likely launched  from the Black and Caspian Seas.

Ukrainian president Zelensky confirmed that the Kharkiv and Donetsk regions (territories under the AFU control) were completely de-energized. The Zaporozhie, Dnepropetrovsk and Sumy partially suffered from the energy cut.

Fire at the Kharkiv CHPP-5 :

Electric trains stood up almost all over the country, in Poltava several trolleybuses caught fire right on the streets:

Most of the Ukrainian energy infrastructure facilities are located in the southeastern regions of the country. On September 11, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation hit key thermal power plants in the northeast and as a result, they de-energized several Northern and Eastern regions of Ukraine.

The power system of Ukraine failed and as a result of the imbalance of the power system, the Yuzhnoukrainskaya and Khmelnitsky nuclear power plants began shutting down power units due to the lack of the possibility of transferring the generated electricity to the grid.

The situation in Ukraine was complicated by the shutdown of the last working unit of the Zaporozhye NPP on the night of September 11. The last unit was stopped as a result of the regular strikes by the AFU on the facility. The Zaporozhie NPP also provided electricity to the territories under Ukrainian control. Prior to that, Ukrainian power engineers disconnected 750 kV and 330 kV power lines from the station. All this has led to a significant decrease in the stability of the country’s energy system.

The accident was localized by disconnecting the western and central regions of Ukraine from the eastern and southern ones. Later, work began on restoring power supply in local segments of the Ukrainian power system. Reserve capacities are being connected, energy is being redistributed from hydroelectric power plants on the Dnieper and power lines in the western part of the country.

The Russian Ministry of Defence is yet to confirm the attacks.

In Ukraine, there were 15 thermal power plants in 2022. All of them were built in Soviet times. That is, since 1991, the number of thermal power plants built in Ukraine is zero. All the existing thermal power plants were built by the communists from the 50s to the 80s. Despite this fact, the Kiev regime continues its decommunization policy in an attempt to instigate hatered to Russia.

Each destroyed thermal power plant is actually an irretrievable loss for Ukraine. Today, two main thermal power plants of Left-Bank Ukraine were put out of service. So far, temporarily.

As for the nuclear power plants, there were four of them in Ukraine: Zaporizhia, Rivne, Khmelnitsky and Yuzhnoukrainskaya in the Mykolaiv region. There are 15 reactors in total, six of which belong to the Zaporozhie NPP, which provides about 40% of electricity generation of all the nuclear power plants and about 20% of the country’s energy balance. The city of Energodar where the Zaporozhie NPP is located has long been under the control of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. Last night, the last power unit at the NPP stopped.

Kiev found itself in a difficult situation. The affected power units can probably be restored in the coming days, but the shelling has significantly complicated the supply of military equipment to the front line, including from the western regions of Ukraine and from abroad, since electric trains have stopped in Ukraine. Today’s attacks are a clear sign for the Kiev regime.

So far, the Russian military has waged a “soft” war, avoiding attacks on strategic infrastructure facilities in Ukraine in an attempt to minimize damage to the civilian population. Such a strategy has already slowed down the Russian advance on the battlefields and increased losses among the Russian military, since Kiev almost did not face obstacles when sending echelons with foreign military equipment and foreign mercenaries to the front line through the bridges on the Dnieper River which are also yet to be destroyed. Amid Russia’s recent losses in the Kharkiv region, the Russian military has probably switched to tougher methods of warfare, which are necessary for victory.

On the other hand, the Russian side is yet to confirm the attacks. There is a chance that Kiev struck at its own facilities in order to blame Russia for the attacks and justify military actions on the Russian territory, while Ukrainian forces are approaching the Russian border in the Kharkov region.

https://southfront.org/breaking-blackout-in-ukraine/