Ukrainian boxing champion Oleksandr Usyk visited a destroyed energy plant in central Ukraine, shortly before Vladimir Putin agreed to immediately halt attacks on energy infrastructure in Ukraine.
Standing among the devastation of the central Ukrainian plant, the 38-year-old heavyweight saw first-hand the effects of Russia’s systematic and repeated attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in its attempt to weaken Kyiv’s war effort.
Usyk visited the site on Monday, just one day before Putin agreed to temporarily halt all attacks on energy infrastructure in a phone call with US president Donald Trump on Tuesday.
“It’s incredible that after every attack, no matter how large the destruction is, the energy workers continue to repair the equipment and restore light to Ukrainians. These people themselves radiate light and hope. Ukraine needs the world’s help in restoring its energy sector; this is our shared battle”, Usyk, who fought in Ukraine earlier in the war, said following the visit.
Putin’s commitment to end the strikes appears to have been short-lived, after Ukraine reported Russian attacks on energy infrastructure in the eastern city of Slovyansk overnight on Wednesday. Thousands of people lost power in the city of 100,000 people after the Russian missile strike, Kyiv said.
Accusations have gone both ways, with the Kremlin accusing Ukraine of not respecting the agreement and saying it attempted to strike energy infrastructure targets.
Usyk visited a factory owned by DTEK, one of Ukraine’s largest private energy providers. He heard stories of survival and resilience from some of the more than 100 frontline workers who have worked at the power station since Russia started firing missiles at it in autumn 2022.
The company says 76 of its energy workers have been wounded and five killed during Russian attacks on its numerous plants. In December last year, an employee who had dedicated more than 30 years of his professional life to the energy industry was killed during one of the strikes, DTEK says.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, DTEK says its employees have “rebuilt from scratch” and restored thermal power plants more than fifty times in the wake of Russian attacks.
Ukraine's energy infrastructure has been the target of large-scale attacks since Russia's invasion in 2022. Ukraine has retaliated by launching drone attacks on Russian oil refineries, pumping stations and ports used for oil and gas exports.
One of the most notable examples was Zaporizhzhia, Europe's largest nuclear power plant which has six units with a capacity of 1 gigawatt each.
After it was occupied by Russian troops in early March 2022, the plant was shut down in September 2022 due to hostilities near the plant. The shutdown units are maintained with power from Ukraine.
Gas and oil infrastructure has also been repeatedly targeted by both sides in efforts to reduce each other's resilience in what has become a slow and grinding war of attrition.
DTEK says Russia has carried out more than 1,300 missile strikes and 1,000 drone attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure – resulting in the loss of nearly 30 GW of energy generation capacity.
Usyk is now fronting an appeal with the country to support Ukraine’s energy infrastructure by replacing equipment for energy companies and ammunition for air defence systems to protect against Russian attacks.
Soon after Russia’s full-scale invasion, the two-time undisputed boxing champion took a break from his sport in order to travel back to Ukraine and join the country’s territorial defense forces alongside fellow Ukrainian fighters Vasiliy Lomachenko and MMA champion Yaroslav Amosov.
He took part in armed patrols in Kyiv before he was given permission to leave Ukraine in order to train for his rematch with Anthony Joshua in March.
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