“Deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Oleksiy Kucherenko, Ukrainians often mocked the Russians, who protect their oil refineries and oil bases with the help of metal nets. However, it turns out that the metal mesh can help protect the energy facility from shaheeds. People’s deputy of Ukraine Oleksiy Kucherenko demonstrated the results: the object was not damaged, only the net was damaged. However, such protection was not taken into account by the state-owned company […]”, — write: businessua.com.ua
Deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Oleksiy Kucherenko
Ukrainians often mocked the Russians, who protect their oil refineries and oil bases with metal nets However, it turns out that the metal mesh can help protect the energy facility from shaheeds. People’s deputy of Ukraine Oleksiy Kucherenko demonstrated the results: the object was not damaged, only the net was damaged. However, such protection was not taken into account by the state company Ukrenergo, despite the huge costs, due to which the consequences are felt again.
People’s deputy Oleksiy Kucherenko, the first deputy chairman of the parliamentary committee on energy and housing and communal services, made an interesting remark. The photo published by the politician shows protective engineering metal structures above the facility and a metal mesh above them. It is not specified what kind of object it is, the photo is blurred, but it is noticeable that after the impact of the Shahed, there is no damage in this place.
“At this facility, we still managed to keep a competent, competent manager and a professional team – they are not boxers and anti-corruption journalists. And they have deputies of the appropriate technical level, not the heads of ZHEK”, – emphasizes Oleksiy Kucherenko.
The object attacked by the Shaheds
Oleksiy Kucherenko believes that the following are responsible for the fact that, in the fourth year of a full-scale war, Ukraine’s energy facilities still do not have at least such protection and are subjected to devastating blows from the Russian side:
- government;
- the deputy majority from “Servants of the People” in the Verkhovna Rada (which appointed this and the previous government);
- Infrastructure Reconstruction and Development Agency (State Reconstruction, headed by Mustafa Nayem);
- state enterprise “Ukrenergo”.
State Rehabilitation and Ukrenergo spent tens of billions building protection for energy facilities, but anti-drone nets are not provided there for unknown reasons. Kucherenko reminds that the City Hall of Kyiv should also think about how to protect the city’s CHP plants from enemy attacks, and make sure that the people of Kyiv have electricity supply.
Of course, this is not a universal solution. But such protection is also possible to break through. But the chances of saving the energy object will be much higher, and the metal structures and grids themselves are not so expensive. Instead, what does the defense of energy facilities, which was erected with state funds, consist of:
- 1st level – from fragments of Shaheds and rockets. These are gabions (metal grids filled with stones) and big-bags (large sandbags), which were placed around energy facilities.
- Level 2 – from a direct hit by drones and from missile fragments. These are concrete walls around the objects.
- Level 3 – from a direct hit by missiles. Concrete shelters (“bunkers”) around the objects. Due to the high cost, they were not erected.
It is worth noting that level 1 and level 2 protection can protect at a relatively low altitude. But the object does not have a protective “roof”. And the installation of metal structures with grids on top was not planned.
A little more than a week ago, deputy Oleksii Kucherenko already demonstrated that sandbags did not protect the substation in the Kyiv region very well. Due to this, the drones seriously damaged a transformer worth 7 million dollars. It is probably a high-voltage substation in the city of Slavutych. As a result, electricity was cut off in Chernihiv Oblast for a long time, the Chornobyl NPP was without power supply for more than 3 hours. And at the same time, Ukrenergo has built less than half of level 2 concrete protection at the facility since 2023. And it cost more than UAH 69 million.
A substation that was not protected by Ukrenergo was damaged by the Russians on October 1
In 2024, the Informant wrote: since the summer of 2023, Ukrenergo, led by Kudrytskyi, has concluded 63 contracts for UAH 4.3 billion for the construction of protective structures for power substations, none of them had yet been implemented. As we can see, not everything has been implemented yet – judging by this example, and prices have increased since then.
This could be the main reason for Kudrytskyi’s dismissal on September 2, 2024. Until the end of 2024, Ukrenergo has concluded contracts for the protection of substations worth about UAH 3 billion.
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