Ukraine's energy giant suffers decreasing equipment stock amidst Russian offensive

DTEK—the Ukrainian energy giant that provides a significant share of the country's energy supply—is running out of equipment to fix the widespread power outages the country has experienced under fire by invading Russian forces.

On October 31, officials with Ukraine's largest privately operated energy company announced it has depleted its stores of equipment following a series of attacks on the country's energy and water infrastructure over the past month, per Newsweek. On Monday, Russian forces deployed at least 50 missiles targeting the country's electrical grid and water supplies, leaving swaths of the country without power as winter approaches.

While DTEK Executive Director Dmytro Sakharuk said Monday the company was able to purchase some equipment to offset the losses, the cost of the equipment is "now measured in hundreds of millions of dollars," with some outages estimated to last well into Tuesday.

The attacks come just weeks after Ukrainian officials announced the rollout of regular emergency blackouts across the country as it began repairs on an energy grid that was already susceptible to disruption.

The country only began diversifying its energy holdings in the last decade. And throughout the early days of the war, Russian attacks caused disruptions to the country's nuclear power facilities—which provided the majority of the nation's power—while upending its ability to produce coal, another vital resource, at heavy volumes, forcing a transition to natural gas.

Meanwhile, recent attacks have prompted Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko to announce the country may need electricity imports to get through the winter.

Before the assault on October 31, Russian attacks were estimated to have destroyed approximately 40 per cent of the nation's energy infrastructure, Ukrainian officials reported, in what groups like Amnesty International described as an attempt "to undermine industrial production, disrupt transportation, sow fear and despair and deprive civilians in Ukraine of heat, electricity and water as the cold grip of winter approaches."