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Russian strikes connected Ukraine’s powerfulness grid will proceed without President Trump stepping in, Ukraine’s apical power executive has warned, arsenic millions consequence a freezing wintertime without power.
DTEK's Maxim Timchenko said retired arsenic Ukraine braced for further Russian drone and rocket attacks connected power infrastructure and a time aft Trump met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for nan 3rd clip to bring an extremity to nan astir four-year war.
"Yesterday’s gathering gave america renewed hope. But our task is not to unrecorded from dream to dream — it is to proceed doing what we person done for 4 years: responding to contiguous challenges and fighting each day," Timchenko told Fox News Digital.
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U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky shingle hands astatine a news convention pursuing a gathering astatine Trump’s Mar-a-Lago nine connected December 28, 2025 successful Palm Beach, Florida. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
"We are profoundly grateful to President Trump for his leadership. We judge he and his squad are nan only ones who tin unit Russia to discuss and extremity nan war, together pinch nan support of our partners successful nan European Union and different countries," nan DTEK CEO said.
Founded by Ukrainian entrepreneur Rinat Akhmetov, DTEK is Ukraine’s largest backstage power company and a backbone of nan nation’s powerfulness supply.
Before Russia’s full-scale penetration successful 2022, nan institution operated 8 thermal powerfulness stations. Three were later occupied by Russian forces.
"Today, we run five powerfulness stations, and each of them has been attacked astatine slightest 5 times since nan full-scale invasion," Timchenko confirmed.
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A seller waits for customers successful a shop during a partial blackout successful Lviv connected Nov. 28, 2024, pursuing Russian strikes connected Ukrainian power infrastructure amid nan Russian penetration of Ukraine. (Yuriy Dyachyshyn/AFP via Getty Images)
He described nan harm arsenic unprecedented. "The level of demolition is incomparable to immoderate power strategy successful nan world. Nothing for illustration this has happened successful modern history," he said.
At 1 point, he said, astir each of DTEK’s procreation capacity was damaged aliases destroyed, pinch losses totaling hundreds of millions of dollars.
"And I tin opportunity that astatine immoderate infinitesimal of time, 90% of our procreation capacity was damaged aliases destroyed," he explained.
"With this destruction, we mislaid hundreds of millions of dollars successful nonstop damages, and I don't moreover mention mislaid revenue. So, only for 2025, our betterment fund was astir $220 million, but if you return it from nan opening of nan full-scale invasion, I opportunity it's hundreds, hundreds of millions of dollars," Timchenko said.
Despite nan demolition and losses faced, his institution has many times restored powerfulness to millions of Ukrainians.
"Since 2022, we person managed to reconnect much than 30 cardinal households and clients," Timchenko said. "We are fighting and we are fast."
RUSSIA UNLEASHES MAJOR DRONE, MISSILE ATTACK ON UKRAINE AS US DIPLOMATIC TALKS CONTINUE
A drone hits an flat building successful Kyiv during Russia's onslaught connected Ukraine connected Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (Gleb Garanich/Reuters)
"For nan past 2 years, it has been highly difficult. Attacks person go truthful aggravated and we unrecorded successful situation mode each azygous time because our instrumentality is destroyed, powerfulness stations damaged, and nan only point we are reasoning astir is really to reconstruct powerfulness proviso arsenic soon arsenic possible," Timchenko said.
He besides added that betterment efforts see resuming state drilling, continuing building of Eastern Europe’s largest upwind park, and building a awesome artillery retention strategy pinch U.S. patient Fluence.
Otherwise, successful Odesa, for example, astir 600,000 group person been affected by outages, pinch immoderate neighborhoods near without powerfulness for days astatine a time.
But Russia’s astir caller large-scale strike came connected Dec. 26, erstwhile missiles and drones deed Kyiv and surrounding areas, cutting energy to much than 1 cardinal group during freezing temperatures.
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DTEK says they person restored powerfulness to 30 cardinal Ukrainian households contempt repeated Russian strikes connected captious power infrastructure. (Reuters)
"People person learned really to unrecorded without necessities for illustration electricity," Timchenko said.
"The somesthesia successful Kiyv was minus 10 degrees and because of this attack, we couldn't get water, we couldn't get heat, and of course, location is nary electricity.
"They attacked america pinch ballistic and Kalibr missiles and calibers, past 500 drones and different types of missiles," he added.
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Looking ahead, Timchenko stressed Ukraine’s dependence connected continued support.
"The power strategy is astatine nan halfway of this fight. Modern life simply cannot beryllium without electricity. We request continued world support," he added.
Emma Bussey is simply a breaking news writer for Fox News Digital. Before joining Fox, she worked astatine The Telegraph pinch nan U.S. overnight team, crossed desks including foreign, politics, news, athletics and culture.
