Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Wednesday that Ukraine needs $91 billion to restore its energy system over the next decade.
Shmyhal said the figure comes from World Bank data and called for more private investments in the energy sector – namely “battery energy storage systems (BESS), renewable energy, gas generation, development of local energy networks, gas production, oil and gas infrastructure.”
“According to the World Bank, Ukraine will need almost $91 billion over the next decade to restore its energy sector. To implement such investments, Ukraine critically needs private capital,” Shmyhal wrote on Telegram.
“We offer a partnership based on common strategic interest and economic feasibility. Ukraine receives a modernized energy system. Europe [receives] a stronger and more diversified energy architecture. Investors [receive] access to one of the largest infrastructure markets on the continent,” he added.
The World Bank mentioned the $91 billion figure in a press release on Feb. 23, saying it is second only to the $96 billion needed to restore the transport sector over the next decade.
A detailed report published alongside the press release, jointly developed by the Ukrainian government, the World Bank Group, the European Commission, and the UN, placed the total recovery and reconstruction needs over the next decade at $587.7 billion, based on the damage recorded between the initial days of Russia’s 2022 invasion and Dec. 31, 2025.
The figures likely excluded damage dealt to Ukraine’s energy grid in the first months of 2026, which led to extensive blackouts lasting over 48 hours as Russia pounded Ukrainian cities in subzero temperatures.
Systematic destruction of Ukraine’s energy grid
Since the beginning of its 2022 invasion, Russia has systematically targeted Ukraine’s energy grid, striking with particular ferocity in the summer of 2024 and the winter of 2025-26.
The targets included the electricity transmission networks and gas infrastructure, and later, directly on the power plants generating electricity across the nation.
During the summer blackouts of 2024, Kyiv Post estimated that Ukraine lost close to 27 gigawatts (GW) of its pre-war functional capacity of 36 GW after power plants were either seized or targeted nationwide.
For context, a single GW is enough to power approximately 750,000 homes simultaneously in the US.
At the time, officials estimated that restoration would cost approximately $1 billion per GW.
While some facilities were built and repaired, Russia again targeted the grid between September 2025 and early March 2026, including thermal plants that supplied heating and electricity in Kyiv, prompting a heating crisis amid subzero temperatures.
Ukraine has sought to restore the system by diversifying and decentralizing the supply system via smaller plants and backup batteries to help stabilize the grid.
However, the fate of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant – Ukraine’s largest, which once supplied nearly 6 GW nationwide and has been under Russian occupation since the start of the 2022 invasion – remains uncertain as peace talks stall over its control.