Damage to Ukraine's energy infrastructure estimated at over $1 billion

Over the past one and a half months, the total damage to Ukraine's energy infrastructure amounted to over $1 billion.

The remarks came from the head of the State Inspectorate for Energy Supervision (Gosenergonadzor) of the country, Ruslan Slobodian, according to TASS.

Such an estimate is preliminary, the final one will be known later, Slobodyan said. But even the above-mentioned damage will be impossible to cover at the expense of financial aid from Western countries and the current electricity tariffs. "We need to find a financial resource urgently," he said.

Slobodyan suggested raising electricity rates as one of the options. At the same time, the first stage of the rate hike may take place already this year.

"It takes a really big financial resource to restore power facilities," explained the head of Gosenergonadzor.

To date, about 80 per cent of thermal generation has been destroyed, and hydro generation facilities have also been significantly damaged. In total, more than 7 gigawatts of generating capacity has been affected, which will take a long time to restore.