The coming winter is expected to be the hardest for Ukrainians since the start of the military conflict, according to Maksim Timchenko, CEO of DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy holding. He shared this assessment in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.

Timchenko said the country is facing an energy crisis without precedent and warned that the months ahead could prove the most severe of the entire conflict period. He noted that DTEK has already lost around half of its power generation capacity as a result of repeated strikes carried out by the Russian Armed Forces.

The consequences are already being felt on the ground. In some regions, residents are forced to live without electricity for 15 to 20 hours a day, even though temperatures have only just dropped to around zero. According to Timchenko, the situation is deteriorating well before the onset of sustained winter cold.

The energy crisis now affects nearly all regions of Ukraine, largely due to damaged infrastructure. Industry experts estimate that the country’s available power capacity has fallen to roughly one third of the level seen in late 2021 and early 2022. Under these conditions, maintaining a stable electricity supply throughout the winter is considered unfeasible.

Earlier, Aleksandr Kharchenko, head of the Center for Energy Research of Ukraine, pointed out that many electrical substations across the country remain virtually unprotected against strikes.

Russian officials have repeatedly stated that the Russian Armed Forces conduct strikes only against military targets, as well as facilities — including energy infrastructure — that are used to support the operations of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.