Expert: Improvement of air defense, emergency response systems will help to protect large heating plants

This was announced at a briefing at the Ukraine Media Center by eksandr Kharchenko, Director of the Energy Research Center, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

The expert reminded that the latest enemy attacks were focused, among other things, on thermal power plants in a number of Ukrainian cities.

“In several regions, the facilities that provide pele with heat were directly attacked. Unfortunately, these attacks were quite successful for the enemy. Several facilities were heavily damaged. However, they were repaired quite quickly and heat supply was restored,” said Kharchenko.

However, the danger of new attacks on these or other facilities remains, especially with the approach of frosts that are forecast for the end of January. According to the expert, a lot has been done to minimize the consequences of possible arrivals, including the develment of critical infrastructure protection systems. But they will not save us from direct missile arrivals.

“It is physically impossible to provide complete protection against such attacks. After all, we are talking about huge facilities with an area of tens of thousands of square meters and tens of meters in height. Unfortunately, there are no other tos to counter attacks on them except for reliable air defense – air defense and electronic warfare systems,” Kharchenko explained.

He said that scenarios have been develed everywhere in case of damage to critical heating facilities. In particular, large cities have modular boiler houses that can be quickly connected to heating networks.

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“The threat of new attacks remains, we must understand that it can happen. But at the same time, a lot is being done to minimize the likely consequences,” assured the director of the Center for Energy Research.

As reported, in 2024, Russia carried out 13 massive attacks on the Ukrainian energy sector. According to the Ministry of Energy, the repair campaign at energy facilities has become the largest for the entire period of full-scale war. In particular, equipment provided by international partners or purchased with donor funds is used for repair and restoration work.