Ukraine is racing to rebuild its shattered power system after a fresh wave of attacks in 2024, and officials say one of the fastest ways to do it is by transplanting entire Soviet-era power units from abroad. With DTEK reporting that about 90% of its thermal generation capacity was damaged or destroyed in the spring and summer of 2024, the government is hunting for compatible equipment wherever it can find it. First Deputy Prime Minister and Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal has told lawmakers that teams are now cataloguing Soviet-designed plants across Eastern Europe and preparing to move whole blocks to plug the gaps at home.
The Scale of Destruction to Ukraine’s Power Grid
Years of strikes have left Ukraine’s largest private power producer fighting to keep its plants online. In a detailed statement, the Operator behind the country’s key thermal power plants described how its facilities have come under repeated attack, with individual stations hit again and again as soon as repairs are finished. The same statement set out how the company has already poured substantial funds into restoring these thermal power plants over several years, only to see newly installed equipment damaged in subsequent strikes, which helps explain why executives are now open to unconventional solutions such as importing entire Soviet-era units.
The toll on generating capacity in 2024 has been especially stark. In a separate Company update, DTEK said around 90% of its thermal generation was damaged or destroyed in the spring and summer, leaving only a fraction of its conventional power output available to the grid. That same company communication outlined how different categories of equipment and materials, from transformers to control systems, are now being sourced externally to rebuild capacity, but the sheer scale of the losses means even large aid packages can only cover part of what has been lost.
Official Push for Soviet-Era Replacements
Against that backdrop, Denys Shmyhal has moved to formalize a search for compatible Soviet-era hardware beyond Ukraine’s borders. During a parliamentary Q&A, the First Deputy PM and Energy Minister told lawmakers that Ukraine is actively looking in Eastern Europe for Soviet-era thermal power plants and combined heat and power, or CHP, plants that still use similar designs. According to that account of his remarks, Shmyhal said specialists are inventorying the equipment at these plants and identifying entire blocks or units that could be dismantled and shipped to Ukraine to replace machinery that was destroyed.
Shmyhal’s comments, reported by the same News outlet, suggest the government is not just seeking spare parts but is prepared to relocate whole Soviet-compatible units if partner countries agree. He framed the effort as a practical response to the damage inflicted on Ukraine’s own thermal and CHP facilities, arguing that using familiar Soviet-era technology can shorten installation times and reduce integration risks compared with brand-new Western systems. His remarks did not spell out which Eastern European states might provide such blocks, which leaves key political and technical details unresolved even as the search proceeds.
International Aid Filling Critical Gaps
While Kyiv looks for Soviet-era equipment in Eastern Europe, Western partners are sending modern hardware to keep the lights on. An overview from the European Commission describes how the European Union has organized deliveries of transformers, switching gear, and other grid components to support Ukraine, alongside funding for repairs, decentralized generation, and emergency imports. That EU record portrays energy support as part of a broader resilience package, with equipment shipments designed to restore damaged lines and substations and to help Ukrainian operators reconnect isolated regions to the national grid.
One concrete example of this support is the joint package from the European Commission and the United States government that DTEK detailed in its Company statement. According to the company, the two partners are providing 107 million dollars of energy aid, including transformers and control systems, to help DTEK maintain electricity supplies. The same statement links that aid directly to the goal of restoring damaged thermal capacity, with DTEK setting targeted restoration figures for how much generation it aims to bring back online using the imported equipment and its own repair work.
Challenges in Scavenging and Integration
Shmyhal’s plan to remove entire Soviet-era blocks from Eastern Europe reflects a bet that like-for-like technology will be easier to plug into Ukraine’s damaged plants, but the available reporting also hints at sizeable hurdles. The account of his parliamentary remarks notes that the search focuses on Soviet-compatible thermal and CHP facilities in Eastern Europe for Soviet designs, which implies that engineers must first verify that any candidate units match the configurations used in Ukraine’s plants. Even when designs are broadly similar, differences in wear, maintenance history, and local modifications could complicate the process of lifting a block out of one site and reassembling it in a war-damaged station.
Logistics inside Ukraine add another layer of difficulty. The Operator statement on repeated attacks makes clear that some thermal plants remain within range of strikes, which raises questions about transporting and installing large Soviet-era units in areas that might be hit again. There is also thin public evidence so far on whether any specific blocks have already been earmarked for transfer, which means timelines for dismantling, shipping, and integration are uncertain based on available sources. Until more details emerge, the plan remains a high-stakes engineering and diplomatic project rather than a fully mapped pipeline of equipment.
Why This Matters for Ukraine’s Resilience
The stakes of these efforts are visible in everyday life, from apartment heating to factory output. DTEK’s report that about 90% of its thermal generation was damaged or destroyed in the spring and summer of 2024, as set out in the Company statement, points to a sharp reduction in the firm’s ability to cover peak demand. In the same communication, the company described targeted restoration capacity figures that it aims to reach by the end of 2024, effectively setting a benchmark for how much of its lost thermal power it hopes to recover. Those targets frame the search for Soviet-era units and the inflow of EU and US equipment as part of a race to get at least half of that capacity back in time to stabilize the grid.
European support records underline how energy resilience has become central to Ukraine’s broader economic survival. The European Commission’s overview of assistance to support Ukraine’s resilience links energy equipment deliveries to keeping critical services, industry, and exports running, which in turn helps the government finance the war effort. By combining modern Western hardware with transplanted Soviet-era blocks, Kyiv is trying to avoid a prolonged cycle of emergency shutdowns that could sap public morale and slow reconstruction. If the targeted restoration to 50% or more of damaged thermal capacity by the end of 2024 is met, it would mark a significant step toward stabilizing both household supply and industrial output, although that goal remains dependent on security conditions and the pace of equipment arrivals.
Unresolved Questions and Next Steps
For all the detail in recent statements, major pieces of the story remain opaque. Shmyhal’s parliamentary remarks, as reported by Ukrainska Pravda, did not name any specific Eastern European donors or spell out the legal and financial terms under which Soviet-era blocks might be removed and relocated. Likewise, the Operator’s description of repeated attacks on DTEK plants shows why such units are needed but does not indicate whether any have already been secured. That leaves outside observers without a clear sense of how many Soviet-compatible units might ultimately be available or how quickly they could be installed.
Energy specialists inside and outside Ukraine are therefore watching two parallel tracks: the incremental gains from EU and US-funded equipment, and the more experimental strategy of scavenging Soviet-era units abroad. The European Commission’s overview of EU assistance hints at a longer-term shift toward more modern, decentralized generation, while the DTEK Company statement ties near-term survival to repairing and partially replacing large thermal units. How policymakers balance those tracks, and how many Soviet-era blocks Ukraine can actually move and integrate, are the key unanswered questions that will shape the country’s power system long after the current wave of repairs is complete.
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*This article was researched with the help of AI, with human editors creating the final content.
