‘Parts not in the supermarket’

• Christiaan Paauwe

  correspondent Central and Eastern Europe

• Wessel de Jong

  news reporter

Recovery crews put on their helmets and walk into the coal-fired power plant to resume work. The air raid siren has just been canceled. Although Ukrainians often ignore the siren, the alarm is taken very seriously here. With a look at what remains of the Soviet building it is clear why.

The roof of the power station has largely been destroyed. There are no windows left. Pieces of concrete were blown off the building and landed hundreds of meters away. Outside the entrance stands a burned-out transformer – the size of a container. It was already shot to pieces a year ago. “But the last attack last month also damaged the new one,” sighs manager Aleksandr.

As Ukraine waited for new arms shipments from America in recent months, the country’s air defenses squealed and creaked under a new Russian air offensive. Once again, critical Ukrainian infrastructure was attacked on a large scale. Without means to defend the airspace, one power plant after another was disabled in Kharkiv and Kyiv, as well as in several western Ukrainian regions.

The Ukrainian power grid runs mainly on nuclear energy and hydroelectric power stations. But the coal-fired power stations are important to meet energy needs when consumption peaks. This happens in the summer when the air conditioners are in use and in the winter when it is cold and dark. That is why they are busy at Aleksandr’s power station to restore everything as best as possible, for the umpteenth time.

According to Aleksandr, his exchange has already been attacked about eight times. The last time with about eight cruise missiles. He does not want the exact location mentioned for security reasons. It seems a miracle that the power plant can still supply any power when the devastation inside becomes clear. The main hall resembles a surreal work of art of blackened walls, burnt-out equipment and twisted steel. Several turbines are out. “We can fix that,” Aleksandr says optimistically. “Then the roof must be made first.”

But restoring these types of old power stations is becoming an increasing challenge. Spare parts are running out. They are hardly available in Ukraine anymore and cannot easily be found in other countries in Europe.

“This kind of equipment is not in the supermarket,” says Dmitro Sakharov. He is executive director of the energy company Dtek, which has six coal-fired power stations. “You have to order them, which takes time, or you have to see if you can buy parts from other former Soviet power stations in Eastern Europe.”

Dtek hopes to restore some of the capacity of these types of coal-fired power stations in the coming months, before summer arrives. Otherwise, parts of Ukraine will sometimes be without power and factories may come to a standstill.

Whether this can be prevented also depends on whether Ukraine can protect its airspace. Anti-aircraft missiles are at the top of the list of new US arms shipments on the way. But there won’t be enough of them. President Zelensky therefore continues to urge allies to supply more Patriot missile systems.

At Aleksandr’s power station they take into account that another attack could come at any time. A colleague nervously checks his phone repeatedly during the tour. The air raid siren has previously sounded in several regions. Then the siren starts blaring again. For the second time this day, employees stream outside to take shelter.

The shelter is full. Some employees are taking a nap, others are looking around bored or on their phones. 19-year-old Eduard, who has been working here for less than six months, also takes the air raid siren very seriously. “After two years of war, I no longer care about it at home, because I am so used to it. But here it is of course very dangerous.”

Every working day is disrupted by an alarm. “We are forced to take a break,” Eduard jokes. “Work is work, and life is more important than work.” Sometimes they have to hide for hours, when drones or cruise missiles are hovering over Ukraine and it is not yet clear where they are flying to. This time it’s not too bad. After half an hour, the alarm is canceled and Eduard can go outside again with his colleagues. The work continues.