Latest news with #EuromaidanRevolution
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Pro-Russia former Ukrainian politician reportedly gunned down in Spain
A pro-Russian former politician from Ukraine was fatally shot Wednesday morning outside his children's school in the Spanish capital Madrid, according to the Reuters news agency and multiple Spanish outlets. Andriy Portnov was killed outside the American School of Madrid by an unidentified gunman or gunmen, according to the reports. "Several persons shot him in the back and the head and then fled toward a forested area," Reuters quoted an unnamed source at the Spanish Interior Ministry as saying. There was no immediate confirmation of the slain man's identity by Spain's National Police or other authorities, and no indication of a motive or any suspects who might have been identified. Witnesses told Spanish media that at least one possible suspect was seen running into a nearby wooded area. According to Spain's El Diario newspaper, citing witnesses, Portnov was shot right after dropping off his children at the American School. Photos from the scene showed a man's body lying motionless on the ground behind a Mercedes sedan. Portnov was a senior aid to former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich, a pro-Russian leader who was ousted during the Euromaidan Revolution in 2014. That ouster brought Ukraine's current, Western-backed government to power, and it infuriated Russia, which launched its first, initial invasion of Ukrainian territory that same year, quickly culminating in the unilateral annexation of Crimea. Portnov was a lawyer, and his political opponents in Ukraine had accused him of helping build a legal framework to enable the former government in Kyiv to crack down on protesters during the 2014 pro-democracy uprising. Portnov continued living in Ukraine after the 2014 revolution, despite his close ties with the Yanukovich administration, until he left the country in 2022, according to the Radio Freedom Ukraine network. In 2021, Portnov was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department under the Magnitsky Act, an American law designed to target foreign individuals implicated in corruption and human rights abuses. The U.S. government accused him of having "cultivated extensive connections to Ukraine's judicial and law enforcement apparatus through bribery," and said he had been "credibly accused of using his influence to buy access and decisions in Ukraine's courts and undermining reform efforts." "As of 2019, Portnov took steps to control the Ukrainian judiciary, influence associated legislation, sought to place loyal officials in senior judiciary positions, and purchase court decisions," the Treasury said. There have been a series of crimes in Spain seemingly related to the Russia-Ukraine war since Putin ordered the full-scale invasion in February 2022. Late that same year, a series of letter bomb attacks targeted high-profile institutions including the Ukrainian and U.S. embassies in Madrid and the Spanish Defense Ministry. In early 2024, Maxim Kuzminov, a Russian pilot who had defected to Ukraine, was killed near Alicante, in southeast Spain. Watch: DHS Secretary Kristi Noem asked what habeas corpus is in Senate hearing Watch: Rubio and Van Hollen get into testy exchange during Senate hearing Rubio interrupted at Senate hearing during remarks on changes at State Department
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Could Ukraine have stopped Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014?
Amid reports that a U.S. peace proposal might include recognizing Moscow's illegal annexation of Crimea, President Donald Trump denied Ukraine was being pressured to accept the move — while also asserting Ukraine had given up the peninsula in 2014 "without firing a shot." "Nobody is asking (President Volodymyr) Zelensky to recognize Crimea as Russian territory, but if he wants Crimea, why didn't they fight for it eleven years ago when it was handed over to Russia without a shot being fired?" Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on April 23. The claim that Ukraine simply handed over Crimea when Russia illegally annexed the peninsula in February 2014 ignores years of Moscow's military buildup in the region and the volatile political crisis occurring in Ukraine at the time that left Kyiv ill-equipped to mount a defense. Russia's annexation of Crimea coincided with the Euromaidan Revolution, widely considered the single most consequential political event in Ukraine's independent history that ended with the ousting of then pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych. After Yanukovych ordered his security forces to open fire on protestors, killing around 100 people, he fled the country to Russia on Feb. 21, 2014. In the power vacuum left by his departure, Moscow moved to take over Crimea. The Kremlin had been amassing troops in Crimea for years thanks to agreements that had allowed it to station its Black Sea Fleet on the peninsula. This military presence enabled Moscow to take swift control over Crimea in less than a month. Russian special forces without insignia seized the building of the Supreme Council and the Crimean Ministers Council overnight on Feb. 27, 2014. A few weeks later, Russian soldiers took control of airports, Ukrainian military units, and the navy. While the takeover was largely without armed resistance, Ukrainian troops stationed at the Balbek Air Base did put up a fight against Russian troops. A total of 103 cadets, 2,239 soldiers and sailors, and 1,649 officers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces held out for almost a month in a complete Russian encirclement in Crimea, then-acting Ukrainian President Oleksandr Turchynov wrote recently on his personal website on April 14 in response to claims that the Ukrainian soldiers stationed in Crimea had not been commanded to defend their positions. Meanwhile, the U.S. and the U.K. — signatories of the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, which pledged to uphold Ukraine's territorial integrity in exchange for Kyiv surrendering its nuclear arsenal — did not come to Ukraine's defense. The agreement has been widely criticized for its vague political guarantees rather than firm commitments to protect Ukraine in the case of armed aggression. 'They explained that they didn't want to irritate Vladimir Putin or provoke a full-scale war in the heart of Europe. Ukraine wasn't given a single bullet,' Turchynov recalled. Russia began taking its first steps toward its future occupation of Crimea long before 2014, helped along by the government of then pro-Russian Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. The Kharkiv agreements, signed by Yanukovych and then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on April 21, 2010, extended Russia's lease to station its Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol until 2042. The agreements signed that year also lifted any restrictions on Russian troops' movements around the peninsula, "creating all the necessary prerequisites for occupation," Turchynov wrote. The increase in the Russian fleet's presence, whose troops and military equipment exceeded that of Ukraine's in Crimea, was supposed to be in exchange for cheaper Russian gas for Ukraine by applying a discount in the form of canceling customs duties. The deal, however, threatened Ukraine's sovereignty. "This was a threat, because at any time, this group (of forces) could have launched wider-scale actions against our country," Vadym Skibitskyi, deputy head of Ukraine's military intelligence agency (HUR), told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) in 2021. Between 2010 and 2014, Russia began covertly bringing in modernized or refurbished equipment into Crimea to strengthen its military forces, according to Ukrainian intelligence (HUR). The agency also recorded incidents when Russia seized Ukrainian navigation equipment in 2011 and 2012. Russian troops were also actively forming new brigades on the Crimean peninsula. At the same time, the Ukrainian army had been experiencing long-lasting funding cuts. An ongoing reform of the army resulted in the disbanding of the 32nd Army Corps and the withdrawal of the 3rd Separate Special Forces Regiment, both of which were stationed in Crimea. Under the presidency of Viktor Yushchenko from 2005-2010, the issue of the Ukrainian military's combat capability and potential NATO membership was regularly raised. These discussions came to a standstill under Yanukovych. Toward the end of his presidential term, Yushchenko said in 2009 that the Ukrainian army had become a "victim of political intrigue," hinting that disagreements within the government had led to the impoverishment of the military. The situation around the peninsula heated up even more in late 2013. On the eve of the Olympic Games in Sochi, a city on the Black Sea coast, Russia announced the need to conduct additional security measures in the water to ensure safety during the sporting event. "Using this legend, the Russian military practiced blocking maritime waters, as well as the airspace, and conducted various reconnaissance operations. They used reconnaissance and long-range radar detection aircraft. They also conducted aggressive reconnaissance activities against Ukraine," Skibitskyi told RFE/RL. In late February 2014, Russian airborne troops from regions including Tula, Ryazan, and Kubinka were reportedly put on high alert and began movement toward the Black Sea coast. Ukraine had little capability to respond at that point. The Kremlin began its occupation of Crimea while Kyiv was in chaos after Yanukovych fled to Rostov-on-Don following the EuroMaidan. Instead of organizing the defense of Crimea, pro-Russian associates of the former president were also busy fleeing Ukraine. "The entire policy of Yanukovych started to fall into place: it weakened the Ukrainian state, paving the way for both the forthcoming annexation of Crimea and the attempt to separate the eastern and southern oblasts from the rest of the country," a report by the Warsaw Institute published in 2018 read. Russia launched an invasion of Ukraine's eastern regions with the use of proxies after it annexed Crimea, and attempted to sow instability in the south. After an interim government was set up in Kyiv, a secret meeting of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council was held on Feb. 28, 2014, almost a week after Russian forces began their operation on the peninsula. The participants decided to put the Ukrainian Armed Forces on full combat alert, appeal to the Budapest Memorandum guarantor countries, strengthen the defense of critical infrastructure, and create an operational headquarters for responding to the situation in Crimea. The decisions did little to drive Russia off the peninsula. Ukrainian admiral Denys Berezovskyi took over the Ukrainian Navy on March 1, 2014. The next day, he refused to comply with the Ukrainian authorities' orders, issuing one himself to subordinate units in Crimea military personnel to hand over their weapons to the warehouses and return military equipment to storage facilities. According to a transcript of the Feb. 28, 2014 NSDC meeting, then-Defense Minister Ihor Teniukh claimed that Ukraine had 15,000 soldiers on the peninsula at the end of February 2014. Turchynov later said that since the beginning of the occupation, 70% of Ukrainian soldiers betrayed their military oath, bringing their number down to 4,000. However, according to Teniukh, only up to 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers were combat ready. During his presidency, Yanukovych's party, the Party of Regions, in cooperation with Russian intelligence services kept close watch over Crimea, even preparing the ground for the upcoming invasion, according to the Warsaw Institute. In particular, Ukrainian military units, police, and Security Service officers were infiltrated and captured by Moscow agents, the Warsaw Institute. "Political disorientation, low morale, poor financial and logistical support, as well as the systematic work of Russian agents in the leadership of the security forces led to mass desertion and defection to the aggressor of most Ukrainian soldiers and officers stationed in occupied Crimea," Turchynov said. "Viktor Yanukovych surrendered Crimea deliberately. There was no pressure on him from the Russian Federation." "Most of the remnants of our military units, surrounded and scattered across the peninsula, were not even able to fulfill orders and basic requirements of military regulations, ensuring the defense of their positions with weapons," Turchynov added. Following the forcible seizure of Crimea, the Russian government held a referendum on the status of peninsula without international observers and with armed Russian soldiers present at polling locations. Russia soon after declared Crimea a part of Russia, cementing its illegal annexation on March 21, 2014. Most countries do not recognize the results of the referendum. "Viktor Yanukovych surrendered Crimea deliberately. There was no pressure on him from the Russian Federation," Valentyn Nalyvaichenko, the former head of Ukraine's Security Service, said during Yanukovych's trial in absentia in 2018. The surrender of Crimea to Russia had been planned since 2010, when fugitive President Yanukovych came to office, he added. On March 24, 2014, Turchynov signed a decree enacting a decision of the NSDC to relocate military units and law enforcement agencies from Crimea to other regions of Ukraine. Within less than a month, Russia had moved to invade and partially occupy parts of eastern Ukraine. Read also: The origins of the 2014 war in Donbas We've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Yahoo
17-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Mass anti-corruption protests put strain on close European ally of Russia
Student-led protests pose the gravest threat to Serbian strongman Aleksandar Vucic's 14 years in power, with over 100,000 taking to the streets of Belgrade and cities across Serbia, calling out systemic corruption throughout the government. March 15 saw what many believe to be the largest crowds in Serbia's recent history, with an estimated 300,000 people marching in the center of Belgrade. Serbian President Vucic, who remains close to Russia, has remained defiant, ignoring calls to step down and accusing the protest movement of planning violent attacks and stoking a civil war. Historic Russian Ally Snubs Putin In Growing Shift To European Union "Moscow and Belgrade pledged to combat color revolutions together in 2021. This is dangerous as Russia can provide Serbia with intelligence support," Ivana Stradner, research fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital. "Vucic is hoping that protests in Serbia will stop, but they are growing increasingly," Stradner added. Read On The Fox News App Vucic accused the students of orchestrating a Western-backed "colored revolution" and compared the movement to the 2014 Euromaidan Revolution in Ukraine, when the pro-Russian president of Ukraine was ousted from power for seeking closer ties with Vladimir Putin over Europe. Nongovernmental and civil society organizations accuse the government of using illegal weapons, including long-range acoustic devices (LRAD), a common crowd control device that can cause severe hearing damage, during a commemorative silence for the victims of the Novi Sad railway collapse in November. "The Belgrade Center for Security Policy strongly condemns the unlawful and inhumane deployment of prohibited weapons, such as acoustic devices, against peaceful protesters during a public gathering of hundreds of thousands of citizens paying tribute to victims of the collapsed roof in Novi Sad," the group said in a statement. Serbia's foreign minister, Marko Djuric, denied the allegations in a post on X. "Serbia categorically denies the baseless accusations that any illegal weapons, including so-called 'sound cannons,' were used against demonstrators in Belgrade," Djuric said. President Vucic also denied the claims, calling it "a vile lie" in an address to the nation and promised to investigate the matter. The protests consuming Serbia didn't just happen overnight and have been sustained for months. Zelenskyy Warns Russia Wants To Cause 'Explosion' In The Balkans Tens of thousands of college students have been marching since December, demanding justice and accountability after the deaths of 15 people in the collapse of a railway station in the Serbian town of Novi Sad. The canopy at the railway station collapsed Nov. 1 after renovations led by two Chinese companies. What originally started as spontaneous protests voicing dissatisfaction with the government's failed response to the railway catastrophe transformed into a movement opposing widespread corruption and the erosion of the rule of law under Vucic. "It's also important to recognize that the cause of the protests runs deeper — many people perceive the state as corrupt and are broadly dissatisfied with Vučić's government. They are calling for greater press freedom and accountability," Helena Ivanov, senior fellow at the Henry Jackson Institute, told Fox News Digital. Ivanov said that the government's attempts to mitigate the situation, such as arresting individuals involved in corrupt deals from years ago or the resignation of the prime minister in January, have been seen as too little, too late by the protesters and opposition politicians. Serbia, Caught Between Europe And Russia, Could Move One Step Closer To Normalizing Relations With Kosovo Many experts and observers of the Balkans were disappointed in the Biden administration's regional policy, claiming that the administration appeased the Vucic regime and refused to call out his antidemocratic practices. The efforts to sway Vucic and maintain close ties to Belgrade were seen as integral to the Serbia-Kosovo normalization process and their path toward European Union ascension. A former high-ranking diplomat with expert knowledge of the Balkans told Fox News Digital that Vucic wrongly portrays the protesters as inspired and led by the "globalist elite," hoping to gain the attention and support of President Trump. If President Trump wants a quick, cheap win for him and the U.S. in the Balkans, the diplomat said Trump should shift the U.S. regional posture from appeasing Vucic to containing him. Such a posture in Serbia will show that the U.S. is not kidding in the Balkans and wants a peaceful solution to simmering conflicts while utilizing the "peace through strength" article source: Mass anti-corruption protests put strain on close European ally of Russia
Fox News
17-03-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Mass anti-corruption protests put strain on close European ally of Russia
Student-led protests pose the gravest threat to Serbian strongman Aleksandar Vucic's 14 years in power, with over 100,000 taking to the streets of Belgrade and cities across Serbia, calling out systemic corruption throughout the government. March 15 saw what many believe to be the largest crowds in Serbia's recent history, with an estimated 300,000 people marching in the center of Belgrade. Serbian President Vucic, who remains close to Russia, has remained defiant, ignoring calls to step down and accusing the protest movement of planning violent attacks and stoking a civil war. "Moscow and Belgrade pledged to combat color revolutions together in 2021. This is dangerous as Russia can provide Serbia with intelligence support," Ivana Stradner, research fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital. "Vucic is hoping that protests in Serbia will stop, but they are growing increasingly," Stradner added. Vucic accused the students of orchestrating a Western-backed "colored revolution" and compared the movement to the 2014 Euromaidan Revolution in Ukraine, when the pro-Russian president of Ukraine was ousted from power for seeking closer ties with Vladimir Putin over Europe. Nongovernmental and civil society organizations accuse the government of using illegal weapons, including long-range acoustic devices (LRAD), a common crowd control device that can cause severe hearing damage, during a commemorative silence for the victims of the Novi Sad railway collapse in November. "The Belgrade Center for Security Policy strongly condemns the unlawful and inhumane deployment of prohibited weapons, such as acoustic devices, against peaceful protesters during a public gathering of hundreds of thousands of citizens paying tribute to victims of the collapsed roof in Novi Sad," the group said in a statement. Serbia's foreign minister, Marko Djuric, denied the allegations in a post on X. "Serbia categorically denies the baseless accusations that any illegal weapons, including so-called 'sound cannons,' were used against demonstrators in Belgrade," Djuric said. President Vucic also denied the claims, calling it "a vile lie" in an address to the nation and promised to investigate the matter. The protests consuming Serbia didn't just happen overnight and have been sustained for months. Tens of thousands of college students have been marching since December, demanding justice and accountability after the deaths of 15 people in the collapse of a railway station in the Serbian town of Novi Sad. The canopy at the railway station collapsed Nov. 1 after renovations led by two Chinese companies. What originally started as spontaneous protests voicing dissatisfaction with the government's failed response to the railway catastrophe transformed into a movement opposing widespread corruption and the erosion of the rule of law under Vucic. "It's also important to recognize that the cause of the protests runs deeper — many people perceive the state as corrupt and are broadly dissatisfied with Vučić's government. They are calling for greater press freedom and accountability," Helena Ivanov, senior fellow at the Henry Jackson Institute, told Fox News Digital. Ivanov said that the government's attempts to mitigate the situation, such as arresting individuals involved in corrupt deals from years ago or the resignation of the prime minister in January, have been seen as too little, too late by the protesters and opposition politicians. Many experts and observers of the Balkans were disappointed in the Biden administration's regional policy, claiming that the administration appeased the Vucic regime and refused to call out his antidemocratic practices. The efforts to sway Vucic and maintain close ties to Belgrade were seen as integral to the Serbia-Kosovo normalization process and their path toward European Union ascension. A former high-ranking diplomat with expert knowledge of the Balkans told Fox News Digital that Vucic wrongly portrays the protesters as inspired and led by the "globalist elite," hoping to gain the attention and support of President Trump. If President Trump wants a quick, cheap win for him and the U.S. in the Balkans, the diplomat said Trump should shift the U.S. regional posture from appeasing Vucic to containing him. Such a posture in Serbia will show that the U.S. is not kidding in the Balkans and wants a peaceful solution to simmering conflicts while utilizing the "peace through strength" doctrine.
Yahoo
31-01-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Ukraine's unlikely ally against Russian attacks on energy sector — warm weather
Nearly three years into the war, Ukrainians have grown used to bracing for brutal winters with electricity blackouts and heating cuts from Russian attacks on the country's energy infrastructure. This winter was predicted to be one of the toughest ones of the war yet. In a worst-case scenario, blackouts were expected to reach 20 hours a day. Greenpeace warned in November that Ukraine's power grid faced a "heightened risk of catastrophic failure.' But thanks to a combination of unseasonably warm weather, and Ukraine's ability to adapt to a third year of Russian campaigns against its energy system, the worst has not come to pass. Since Russia began targeting Ukraine's energy infrastructure in late 2022, the country has learned to better protect the power grid, figuring out how to make repairs in record time following Russian strikes. Climate change — which has been causing warmer winters each year in Ukraine — has also become Ukraine's unexpected ally in resisting Russia's tactic of freezing Ukrainians into submission. 'The fact that we have such warm weather of +6, +7 degrees Celsius (42-44 degrees Fahrenheit) is fantastically positive for us,' said Oleksandr Kharchenko, managing director of the Energy Industry Research Center, crediting the mild winter as a main factor for the lack of problems with power in Ukraine. In the past, Ukraine had hot summers and cold winters, consistent with its mostly continental climate. Snow and temperatures below zero degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit) characterized every winter, including the one in 2014 when the Euromaidan Revolution unfolded and protesters on Independence Square in Kyiv danced to patriotic chants to warm up. Things are different now. Ukraine's Environment Ministry on Jan.19 went as far as to say in a social media post that, 'Due to global warming, there is no climatic winter in Ukraine (this year).' 'Due to global warming, there is no climatic winter in Ukraine (this year).' 'If the winter used to be a season of frost and snow, then now the weather often reminds of late autumn or early spring,' the ministry wrote. The Central Geophysical Observatory declared 2024 'the warmest year on record' in Kyiv, with the December average at zero degrees Celsius. Temperatures were above zero every day the last week of January, a record for the country, the observatory said. 'Ukraine is one of the regions of the planet where the temperature has been rising at the highest rate over the past decade,' said Svitlana Krakovska, head of the applied climatology laboratory at the Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Institute. 'And the main warming occurs primarily in winter,' she was cited as having said in the ministry's post on social media. Ukraine hasn't yet had to implement any country-wide rolling blackouts in 2025, according to open data collected by the Energy Map. These scheduled limitations of electricity supply for businesses and households were put in place at various times throughout the previous years to cut the consumption in peak hours to avoid the collapse of the country's strained power system. Hours-long blackouts were widely used throughout the country for much of the spring and summer of 2024 following Russia's bombing of power plants and transmission stations, and during scheduled repairs of the nuclear power plants. The power cuts were implemented sporadically throughout December. 'As you can see, electricity is now being supplied without restrictions almost all over the country, apart from the front-line regions, where the situation is difficult in general,' Kharchenko told the Kyiv Independent. 'As you can see, electricity is now being supplied without restrictions almost all over the country, apart from the front-line regions, where the situation is difficult in general.' As the temperature continues to hover at or above zero, the country's energy system hasn't yet entered a red zone where it has to start cutting power. 'Every degree below zero Celsius requires an additional 200 megawatts (MW) of power,' he added. 'With our current operating capacities, we simply don't have enough (to cater) for temperatures of minus three and four degrees Celsius (24-26 degrees Fahrenheit) and below.' Russia has regularly targeted Ukrainian critical infrastructure since it began its campaign in 2022, destroying over half of the country's pre-war power system capacities. 'In 2022-2023, Ukraine's power system lost about 21 gigawatts (GW) of capacity,' out of the 47 GW before the full-on war, wrote Oksana Zueva, a senior expert in open data at Kyiv-based think tank DiXi Group. To take that much capacity out, Moscow carried out at least thirty massive attacks on energy facilities, according to open data gathered by the Energy Map. The attacks evolved over time to use various weapons and tactics, while Russia's goal remained the same: plunging Ukraine into a humanitarian crisis, making regular citizens' lives as difficult as possible, and destabilizing the country before any possible peace talks in the future. Around 10 GW of energy generation was knocked out in 2024 due to Russia's missile and drone attacks, the Energy Ministry told the Kyiv Independent. Since mid-November, six massive attacks were launched by Russia over the two and a half months of this winter season, causing 'much greater damage and destruction than in previous years,' the ministry added. The attacks included anywhere between 70 to 90 cruise or ballistic missiles and 90 to 120 drones each time, as well as internationally banned cluster munitions. 'But they didn't reach their goals,' Kharchenko told the Kyiv Independent. According to Kharchenko, Ukraine has also gotten much better in resisting Russia's attacks on energy in over two years since they began. It improved coordination with air defense protecting the power system and built some fortifications that have already proved effective. Experience also helps when the attacks succeed: at this point, there are reserves of equipment to restore the damaged facilities and clear plans for bypassing them in the grid and restoring them as quickly as possible, Kharchenko said. A lot of that equipment is pledged or financed by international partners, the Energy Ministry told the Kyiv Independent. 'In 2024, Ukrenergo's repair teams set an absolute record by replacing an autotransformer at one of its substations within three weeks,' Ukraine's state grid operator Ukrenergo told the Kyiv Independent. 'This included transportation, installation, and connection. For comparison, in EU countries, such works are carried out in three to four months,' the statement said. Warm weather also contributed to the speed of repairs, Ukrenergo said. However, with temperatures projected to drop in the coming days, Ukraine needs to secure its energy supply for any weather. 'For the Ukrainian power system to operate efficiently and confidently, we need to build about 4-4.5 GW of additional peaking power plants,' Kharchenko said. Peaking power plants are meant to step in during peak periods of consumption to avoid blackouts. They should be able to quickly increase or decrease the energy output, which is impossible for the three Ukrainian-controlled nuclear power plants that currently supply up to 55-60% of the country's energy, according to Kharchenko. Peaking power plants could be coal-based, hydroelectric, or gas-powered, Kharchenko added, as other types of power are either dependent on weather conditions or too long to develop. But so far, it was coal-based thermal plants, hydroelectric plants, and the transmission grid around them that were targeted by Russian attacks the most. Eighty percent of Ukraine's pre-war coal-fired power capacities were destroyed, though some of them were restored, Kharchenko said. Nine Ukrainian hydroelectric plants remaining after Russia's destruction of the Kakhovka dam still generate up to 12% of the country's energy despite Russian attacks. 'Unfortunately, we can't build many of them,' Kharchenko said, referring to the limitations of the country's natural river resources needed to build more hydroelectric generation. We've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
