Mapped: Which Ukrainian nuclear power plants could Trump take as part of the ceasefire deal?

The estimated damages caused by Russia’s aerial attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure after three years of war are more than £11 billion

Donald Trump has floated the idea of taking control of Ukraine’s nuclear power plants, in a phone call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.

The conversation on Wednesday was described as positive by both sides and was mainly aimed at securing a truce between Ukraine and Russia on aerial attacks against one another’s energy infrastructure.

Mr Zelensky suggested the call had focused on the US takeover of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which is under Russian control.

A Russian serviceman patrols the territory of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station in Energodar on May 1, 2022 (AFP via Getty Images)

But a statement from the White House, penned by Mr Trump’s secretary of state Marco Rubio and national security adviser Mike Waltz, spoke of the potential American acquisition of multiple stations, including “Ukraine’s electric supply and nuclear power plants”.

The unexpected request follows an ongoing conversation between the two countries to facilitate the US purchase of critical Ukrainian mineral resources, estimated to be worth hundreds of billions of dollars. Those talks broke down after a public feud between Mr Trump and Mr Zelensky at the White House last month.

Mr Zelensky also said after the call that a halt on energy strikes in the war with Russia could be established quickly but warned Ukraine would respond in kind if Moscow violated the terms of the limited ceasefire. “I understand that until we agree (with Russia), until there is a corresponding document on even a partial ceasefire, I think that everything will fly,” Mr Zelensky said, referring to drones and missiles.

Just hours after Vladimir Putin agreed to immediately order his army to halt strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure in a call with Mr Trump on Tuesday, Russian missiles and drones pummeled Ukrainian cities, underscoring the difficulties in securing a ceasefire that will hold.

Russian drones knocked out the electricity for parts of the eastern Ukrainian city of Slovyansk on Tuesday night before Moscow proceeded to fire around 150 missiles and drones at targets across Ukraine overnight, hitting civilian homes and medical facilities.

Moscow accused Ukraine of doing the same after state media reports suggested Ukrainian drones had hit an oil facility in the Russian region of Krasnodar. The Independent could not verify this claim nor the footage provided by state media purporting to show the aftermath of the attack.

The two sides have been exchanging aerial attacks on energy infrastructure for more than a year.

Ukraine started striking deep into mainland Russia at the beginning of 2024 in an attempt to disrupt Moscow’s Russian oil and gas flows and the revenue it derives from sales of energy abroad. Russia, meanwhile, has been bombing Ukraine’s energy infrastructure since October 2022.

The Kremlin’s primary aim, experts say, is to destroy Ukrainian morale and cripple Kyiv’s economy. The rate of strikes often jumps during the winter months as Russia literally tries to force Ukrainians into the cold.

Between March and September last year, Russia launched nine long-range attacks on Ukraine’s electric power system, according to United Nations estimates. “The strikes had reverberating effects causing harm to the civilian population,” the UN wrote.

The largest of those attacks, on 26 August, killed seven people and left dozens more wounded. Russia fired 127 missiles and 109 drones, around half of which were destroyed. More than half of Ukraine was hit, with swathes of the country plunged into blackouts.

A year earlier, in December 2023, Russia unleashed one of its most devastating air attacks of the war on Ukraine, killing 31 civilians, wounding more than 160 others and hitting cities and infrastructure across the country.

In early June 2023, the Russians blew up and completely destroyed the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant, causing the Dnipro River’s banks to burst. Thousands of homes were flooded. Damages from the dam’s destruction are currently estimated at $586 million.

These attacks have extended to nuclear sites. In February, a Russian drone struck the former nuclear power plant at Chernobyl.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN’s nuclear watchdog, said that its team at the site heard a large explosion shortly before 2am local time.

While radiation levels were kept under control, experts cautioned that Russia was acting recklessly.

“We’re getting closer and closer to possible disaster,” Serhii Plokhy, who tells the story of the occupation of Chernboyl in his 2024 book Chernobyl Roulette, told The Independent later that month.

Citywide blackouts across Ukraine have left civilians without access to electricity for significant chunks of the day.

Houses are seen underwater in the flooded town of Oleshky, Ukraine, after the Kakhovka dam was destroyed (Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

In a paper published last month, the Kyiv School of Economics (KSE), estimated that the total damages to Ukraine’s energy sector after three years of Russia’s full-scale invasion is $14.6 billion (£11.3 bn).

All the country’s coal-fired power plants and hydroelectric plants under Ukrainian control have been damaged since February 2022. At least 20 combined heat and power plants have been hit.

At least nine thermal power plant units have been damaged, and one of them was completely destroyed as a result of a direct Russian missile hit.

KSE writes that the costs of restoring these facilities are likely to “significantly exceed the estimated damages due to significant physical wear and tear and technological obsolescence of damaged and destroyed equipment.”