Examples of environmental harm in Ukraine | return to map

Name: Kurakhivska Thermal Power Plant
Location: Kurakhove, Donetsk region

CEOBS database ID: 10056

Context

Kurakhivska Thermal Power Plant (TPP) is one of the oldest in Ukraine. It was originally built in the late 1930s to meet industrial power demands and to connect the Donetsk and Dnipro energy sub-clusters.¹ The plant is primarily coal-fired but can also run on heavy fuel oil. 

In 2015, with the start of war in the Donbas, two out of three 330 kilovolt power lines leading to substations in occupied areas of Donetsk Oblast were de-energised. Only five generating units were operating on the 21st February 2022. The TPP supported about 1,200 jobs and before the war, provided heating for 8,000 customer accounts and power for a large part of Donetsk Oblast.  

Timeline of key incidents 

Kurakhivska TPP has been shelled dozens of times since February 2022, with near-daily incidents during certain periods. 

8th September 2022 – 11th November 2022  

On the 8th September 2022, Kurakhivska TPP was shelled amid a partial blackout in Donetsk Oblast. A strike on the 18th October 2022 damaged its cooling pipelines in several places and caused serious spills and leaks, with vapour emissions visible on satellite imagery. On the 11th November 2022, shelling damaged a 330 kilovolt line powering a large part of the region.² 

23rd December 2022 – 10th February 2023

As front lines advanced to approximately 20 km from the facility, shelling became more frequent. Between the 23rd-29th December 2022, strikes led to staff casualties and temporary pauses in power generation. On the 4th January, local channels reported a strike at the power plant that damaged transformers and caused a local blackout. From the 7th January, the plant’s capacity was reduced to just one of its nine energy generating units. Satellite imagery on the 11th January shows that the TPP went into temporary shutdown, before being partially restored several days later.

On the 1st February, the State Investigation Bureau reported having prevented a sabotage attempt involving an explosion at Kurakhivska TPP. On the 10th February 2023, a missile strike damaged one of the power plant’s technical facilities. Satellite imagery from the 10th February 2023 captured a large smoke plume.

2nd April 2023 – 5th May 2023

On the 2nd April 2023, power distribution installations were shelled, and there were reports that a control point was destroyed, with staff casualties and fatalities. On the 5th May 2023 Ukrenergo, the national energy operator, stated that a power facility in Donetsk Oblast had been under artillery fire for two hours, with local channels reporting blackouts and a fire at Kurakhivska TPP. 

7th July 2023 – 14th September 2023

In May 2023, the TPP had to suspend operations twice because of shelling. On the 7th July, and after it had been weakened by earlier shelling, the roof of the boiler and turbine room collapsed, resulting in the death of three staff members and injuries to three others. The power plant was put into emergency shutdown but on the 11th July it was partially restored. With frontlines advancing towards the facility, it has continued to suffer damage from artillery and rocket strikes. Initial assessments indicate that damage to the facility is likely to be very serious.³ 

Damage assessment  

In the course of the attacks, the boiler and turbine room was damaged, causing part of the roof to collapse. The power distribution system has been targeted on many occasions and a building housing plant controls was destroyed. Further damage to the facility from fighting is likely to render it non-operational until major repairs. 

Environmental harm assessment

In spite of pre-war efforts to reduce Kurakhivska TPP’s environmental footprint, which had included installing filters, and recycling fly ash into construction materials, the plant was considered one of the region’s major polluters.⁴ The extent to which the filters may have been damaged is unclear. However, reduced generation will have contributed to reduced day-to-day emissions.  

However, fires affecting power distribution infrastructure can cause pollution with persistent and dangerous chemicals such as PCBs, dioxins and PAHs. Dozens of strikes at the site are also expected to have caused the resuspension and remobilisation of legacy pollution, this includes harmful substances contained in coal ash. The sound management and disposal of the large amounts of asbestos-containing demolition waste expected to have been generated at the site will be an additional challenge.  

Longer-term implications

Loss of power and heating can have reverberating consequences for the environment, including from increased reliance on fossil fuel generators, and the operation of water supply and wastewater treatment facilities. Moreover, coal mining operations in the area depend on a reliable external energy supply for safety and mine effluent pumping. Coal mine flooding is a serious long-term environmental threat in the region. 

Residual fuels in the coal warehouse and oil storage facilities at the plant pose a fire danger.⁵ The site’s two coal ash dumps totalling about 400 hectares and located close to Vovcha River – a tributary of the Samara, and then Dnipro – are a dormant threat. Testing of ash from Ukrainian TPPs running on various domestic coals has found excessive concentrations of sulphates, metals and other pollutants capable of leaching into surface water bodies and groundwater. Some monitoring wells were maintained at the site but with it becoming an active frontline this was halted. Blasts from shelling and strikes may mobilise ash or damage the containment earthworks, causing pollutant releases. 

Dis/mis-information watch

During the 2023-24 winter period, Russian military bloggers claimed that the power plant accommodated Ukrainian military vehicles or was used as a fortification for troops.

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