When Russia bombs a thermal plant, an entire oblast can go dark. Hit a wind farm, and most of it keeps spinning. DTEK confirmed this week that it will invest €1.2 billion ($1.4 billion) in a 650 MW wind project in Poltava Oblast—around 100 turbines supplied by the Danish Vestas—to replace what Russia has destroyed.
“Ukraine remains attractive for investment today.”
The Poltava plant was first flagged in DTEK’s January 2025 expansion announcement. What is new is the price tag, the turbine count, and the commitment to move forward.
DTEK CEO Maxim Timchenko used the announcement to address international investors: “Ukraine remains attractive for investment today, and international partners have a real opportunity to join in building a modern, European energy system.”
The investment comes after one of the most destructive winters of the war. All 15 of Ukraine’s thermal power plants were damaged or destroyed in Russia’s 2025–2026 energy campaign, and electricity exports only resumed in March—for the first time since November 2025—on a grid that goes into next winter without buffer.
Who can build, and who cannot
Almost no one in Ukraine is allowed to build wind at scale. NV magazine has named DTEK Ukraine’s largest private investor since the start of the full-scale invasion, with almost 102 billion hryvnia ($2.3 billion) committed—22% of total private investment from more than 150 companies in the magazine’s ranking. The company is owned by SCM, the holding group of Ukrainian billionaire Rinat Akhmetov.
DTEK already operates the 384 MW Tylihulska expansion in Mykolaiv Oblast, financed in part by €370 million ($435 million) in loans backed by Denmark’s Export and Investment Fund.
“Only the most resilient and politically connected companies are able to survive and continue business.”
Energy policy expert Oleh Savytskyi told Euromaidan Press in January that 4 GW of wind projects with permits and grid connections are idle—blocked by market debts, the absence of long-term contracts to guarantee buyers, and rules that favor established players.
“Only the most resilient and politically connected companies are able to survive and continue business,” Savytskyi of Razom We Stand said. “The market is not open for independent renewable energy project developers.”
A 650 MW dent in a wider gap
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Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal has set a target of 1.5 GW of new distributed gas generation in 2026—as much as in all four years of full-scale war combined—but 208 priority sites have not yet started construction, and heating utilities owe state gas company Naftogaz more than 100 billion hryvnia ($2.3 billion).
The Poltava plant will take years to build.
Wind operates at roughly a third of its rated power on average, so the new 650 MW plant would deliver around 200 MW—a meaningful but partial answer to a deficit that reached 7 GW at peak last winter.
The Poltava plant will take years to build. By the time its turbines start spinning, the 4 GW of permitted independent projects may still be where they are now.
