Drone attack knocks out power for occupied Donetsk and Luhansk
Photo: Total blackout hits occupied Donbas (Russian media)
A complete blackout has occurred in the temporarily occupied parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions following a drone attack. A thermal power plant in the town of Shchastia, Luhansk region, caught fire, according to OSINT channels.
Which station was affected
The Luhansk Thermal Power Plant, also known as the former Voroshylovhrad State Regional Power Plant, is located in the town of Shchastia, near Luhansk.
It has six operational and two mothballed power units, which have already exhausted their design service life, and supplies roughly 80% of the electricity needs of the occupied region.
Before the full-scale invasion, the station was part of DTEK (Ukraine’s largest private energy company) Skhidenergo. Following the occupation of the region, the Russian-installed administration announced the nationalisation of the facility and its intention to invest over 2.1 billion rubles in its reconstruction.
Photo: Fire at the Luhansk thermal power plant (t.me/exilenova_plus)
By 2024, however, the station had ceased to exist as a separate entity and was transferred to a newly established joint-stock company.
Russian administration never disclosed the identities of the investors nor commented on the opaque arrangement by which the billion-ruble asset was handed over to a private company whose owners remain concealed behind a corporate registrar.
Strikes on facilities in the occupied parts of Donbas have occurred before. As early as May, the Ukrainian Air Force used Storm Shadow missiles to hit a key Russian facility in the Luhansk region - a command post and communications hub - in an effort to degrade the occupiers' command-and-control capabilities.
Against the backdrop of the protracted occupation, other landmarks in the region are also falling into decay. The original home stadium of Donetsk's Shakhtar football club, for instance, has effectively turned into a dumping ground after 12 years of neglect.
