‘Only Trump can stop Russia’: Millions face freezing winter, Ukraine energy executive warns

Russian strikes on Ukraine’s power grid will continue without President Trump stepping in, Ukraine’s top energy executive has warned, as millions risk a freezing winter without power. DTEK's Maxim Timchenko spoke out as Ukraine braced for further Russian drone and missile attacks on energy infrastructure and a day after Trump met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for the third time to bring an end to the nearly four-year war. "Yesterday’s meeting gave us renewed hope. But our task is not to live from hope to hope — it is to continue doing what we have done for four years: responding to immediate challenges and fighting every day," Timchenko told Fox News Digital. TRUMP TOUTS 'TREMENDOUS PROGRESS' BUT SAYS HE'LL MEET PUTIN AND ZELENSKYY 'ONLY WHEN' PEACE DEAL IS FINAL "We are deeply grateful to President Trump for his leadership. We believe he and his team are the only ones who can force Russia to negotiate and stop the war, together with the support of our partners in the European Union and other countries," the DTEK CEO said. Founded by Ukrainian entrepreneur Rinat Akhmetov, DTEK is Ukraine’s largest private energy company and a backbone of the nation’s power supply. Before Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, the company operated eight thermal power stations. Three were later occupied by Russian forces. "Today, we operate five power stations , and each of them has been attacked at least five times since the full-scale invasion," Timchenko confirmed. PUTIN REJECTS KEY PARTS OF US PEACE PLAN AS KREMLIN OFFICIAL WARNS EUROPE FACES NEW WAR RISK: REPORT He described the damage as unprecedented. "The level of destruction is incomparable to any energy system in the world. Nothing like this has happened in modern history," he said. At one point, he said, nearly all of DTEK’s generation capacity was damaged or destroyed, with losses totaling hundreds of millions of dollars. "And I can say that at some moment of time, 90% of our generation capacity was damaged or destroyed," he explained. "With this destruction, we lost hundreds of millions of dollars in direct damages, and I don't even mention lost revenue. So, only for 2025, our recovery budget was about $220 million, but if you take it from the beginning of the full-scale invasion, I say it's hundreds, hundreds of millions of dollars," Timchenko said. Despite the destruction and losses faced, his company has repeatedly restored power to millions of Ukrainians . "Since 2022, we have managed to reconnect more than 30 million households and clients," Timchenko said. "We are fighting and we are fast." RUSSIA UNLEASHES MAJOR DRONE, MISSILE ATTACK ON UKRAINE AS US DIPLOMATIC TALKS CONTINUE "For the last two years, it has been extremely difficult. Attacks have become so intense and we live in crisis mode every single day because our equipment is destroyed, power stations damaged, and the only thing we are thinking about is how to restore power supply as soon as possible," Timchenko said. He also added that recovery efforts include resuming gas drilling, continuing construction of Eastern Europe’s largest wind park, and building a major battery storage system with U.S. firm Fluence. Otherwise, in Odesa, for example, around 600,000 people have been affected by outages, with some neighborhoods left without power for days at a time. But Russia’s most recent large-scale strike came on Dec. 26, when missiles and drones hit Kyiv and surrounding areas, cutting electricity to more than 1 million people during freezing temperatures. FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE SAYS PUTIN WON’T AGREE TO UKRAINE PEACE DEAL UNLESS FACED WITH 'BIGGER STICK' "People have learned how to live without necessities like electricity," Timchenko said. "The temperature in Kiyv was minus 10 degrees and because of this attack, we couldn't get water, we couldn't get heat, and of course, there is no electricity. "They attacked us with ballistic and Kalibr missiles and calibers, then 500 drones and other types of missiles," he added. Looking ahead, Timchenko stressed Ukraine’s dependence on continued support. "The energy system is at the core of this fight. Modern life simply cannot exist without electricity. We need continued global support," he added.