Exclusive / How Ukraine’s top energy CEO keeps the lights on and hope intact

DTEK is a unique case study in how the green transition is upending conventional notions of energy security. For the past few decades, that term has mainly referred to the security of fossil fuel supply chains. For Ukraine, that wasn’t enough: DTEK, which produces about one-quarter of the country’s power, supplies its own coal, but still found itself scrambling to mitigate blackouts for the past several winters and summers since so much of its physical infrastructure was destroyed. Renewables, Timchenko said, aren’t just central to the company’s long-term profit strategy: They’re also much harder to destroy, making a decentralized energy system fundamental to Ukraine’s national security.

DTEK also offers an object lesson in how clean energy projects can get built under extreme duress. New renewable energy and battery storage projects are under construction, some within 70 miles of the front line. But it has taken some creative fundraising to get there, both because of the war and because some investors, especially government-backed institutions, have had reservations about working with a company owned by Ukraine’s richest person, Rinat Akhmetov. Still, DTEK’s work on renewables makes the squabbles over permitting and tax credits that are familiar in the US seem petty and easily solved by comparison.

Timchenko oversees one of Europe’s largest energy companies, with a portfolio of assets that spans enormous Soviet-era coal-fired power plants, solar and wind farms, coal mines, oil and gas wells, electric grids, and more. He has helmed DTEK since it was founded 20 years ago. For more than half of that time, he points out, Ukraine has been at war, starting with Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and invasion of the Donbas region. For Timchenko, the full-scale invasion of 2022 started two days earlier than it did for most other Ukrainians, when Russian forces began shelling a DTEK power plant in the far east. That was scary enough, he said. But by the time, in summer 2024, when DTEK power plants became one of Russia’s primary targets and they were all nearly wiped out, “that’s when things were really very shocking,” he said.

Timchenko has spent much of the past few years racing around the globe between high-profile conferences, summits, investor meetings, and closed-door consultations with top energy officials in the US and Europe. His underlying goal is to keep the lights on. But to do that, he has had to convince a wide range of private and public sector leaders to look past the scary wartime headlines and believe in the leading role he thinks Ukraine can and should play in Europe’s energy future. This week, he shared some insights on how he’s managed to do just that.

Tim: What’s the latest from the energy front in the war? Are you still seeing a lot of attacks on energy facilities?

Maxim: We had some breaks because of the ceasefire from March. That gives us an opportunity to restore what was destroyed. But Russians continue attacking, mostly refineries, not so much power generation and distribution and transmission like it was last year. But definitely every day we have some damage, especially close to the front where we operate. It doesn’t mean Russians want any ceasefire — probably they just have different priorities now. We have to be ready for the next wave of attacks.

You have a lot of competing priorities when it comes to rebuilding Ukraine’s energy system. What’s your strategy for choosing among them?

If we have damage to each of our power stations, we don’t just restore one while the others are waiting. We try to do it in parallel. But we have to consolidate resources. First, equipment: Do we have the necessary equipment for one station at another that we can cannibalize? We can’t wait for manufacturing. For example, [Russian forces] attacked one power unit and took out the transformer. We had another unit under long-term construction, with the same transformer. That one would take, in any case, nine months to finish. But we can’t afford to wait. So we just use it as a donor to get this capacity back to the grid. Then we can afford to wait for another new transformer. It’s always this kind of decision.

Second, people: Do we have enough engineers for the job, or do we need to bring in people, for example from coal mines, to help clean the site? A lot of that is in the hands of individual power station directors, because they know best what’s available.

Our absolute priority is to add more generation capacity. That’s the core philosophy, even if it’s just a temporary solution. Last year, we ordered new equipment from our European partners and from USAID, and now this equipment has started coming to our sites so that we can replace some of the older equipment which is in very bad condition. So now we’re moving to a second stage where we have a bit more time to find permanent solutions.

In general, from the first day of the full-scale invasion, agility became critical. If you want to fix something, you have to get fast at exchanging information and making decisions.

And how do you balance those immediate needs with the company’s long-term strategic direction? Do those goals ever compete with one another?

This war will be over sooner or later, so you can’t concentrate only on the war. After the war, what will be left? That’s the big question. The war really started for us in 2014. It hasn’t stopped us from building wind farms, building new battery storage projects, drilling the deepest oil and gas wells in Ukraine, bringing in new technologies, and developing our business outside of Ukraine. Just last week, for example, we had a meeting to talk about what AI means for DTEK. We’re always thinking about what will come next, even in the worst moments. In February 2022, we had to suspend construction on the Tyligulska wind farm. But even that was only for three or four months. Then, even when there was a lot of uncertainty about the future of Ukraine, we decided to continue.

This year, we revised the five-year strategies for each of our companies [within DTEK Group] so we have clarity about their direction. And I wouldn’t say those goals compete with the short term. Take our renewable business. We have a long-term goal to build more capacity and keep a leading position in renewables. But at the same time, it helps a lot during the war. Renewables are much more secure and resistant to attacks than thermal generation. Or in the oil and gas business. We’ve always wanted to increase our production, and started really investing in this in 2013. But at the same time, it helped us during the war, because quite a lot of gas infrastructure was destroyed at the beginning of this year.

For the new renewables projects you’re building, what’s your pitch to investors, or your strategy for raising capital in a warzone?

It’s not easy to raise capital and bring it to Ukraine. This is the reality of our life. So what do you offer? First, most of that capital is coming from government-backed institutions. You cannot go to a commercial bank and ask for a loan in Ukraine unless you have 100% insurance covering it. So, for example, on the Tyligulska wind farm, the Export and Investment Fund of Denmark provided insurance to Danske Bank, which issued a loan to us.

But now we’re trying to bring in more equity partners. Some are already present in Ukraine. They understand Ukraine. They see the high returns you can get in Ukraine that wouldn’t be an option in Europe with this technology. It’s smart to see strategic potential in Ukraine. We always say, guys, maybe you shouldn’t invest hundreds of millions at the moment, but you need to be present at some level in Ukraine to get an understanding of the potential. And we’re ready to be the local partner.

That’s the argument we bring into our meetings. These are bankable projects. And after all we’ve done during the war, we know what we’re doing, and I think we deserve a lot of trust.

Does that pitch become more difficult during moments like the past few weeks, when there’s been a ramp-up of air attacks on Kyiv and other cities, and Ukrainian forces are struggling to hold the line on the eastern front, and US support is wavering?

To be honest, we had more optimism in February and March after Trump was inaugurated. Today it’s going down. But investors still want to speak to us. We’re meeting financial institutions, other energy companies from Europe that can be equity partners, and private equity funds. And I wouldn’t say those conversations are becoming more complicated. We have a couple of projects in development now, and no one has asked to terminate them or take a break.

Do you worry about the continuity of air defense munitions from the Trump administration?

I don’t know all the information about what is suspended or not. What I can say is we are absolutely dependent on air defense forces to protect us. We do our job. We know how to recover, how to operate, how to invest. We have done everything we can realistically for the physical protection of our infrastructure. But the key is how effective our air defense can be.

Can you say a little about DTEK’s work in coal mining and power? Did the war change your plans for phasing out coal in your portfolio?

Coal generation will be replaced by other kinds of generation, that’s obvious for everybody and definitely for us. Coal generation now is more about energy security. As much as our energy system requires coal generation, we will keep producing it.

But with the speed of development of renewables, we can’t avoid that coal will be out of the mix. This summer, for example, no one expected that there would be so much new rooftop solar capacity in Ukraine that we would see a sharp decrease in demand for power from households. But the speed in which coal is phased out depends on many factors: The war, the speed of renewables, the plans of [state-owned nuclear power company] Energoatom to complete two new nuclear power units. Our Ministry of Energy has said the phaseout will happen by 2035. For now, our absolute priority is energy security, that’s why we’re working so hard to restore our coal generation.

This year DTEK bought its first shipment of liquefied natural gas from the US. What kind of trade relationship do you envision the company having with the US?

We definitely want to develop our relationship with US investors and companies. I still hope we will have deals for five or six more LNG cargoes by the end of this year. Then we want to continue to work with financial institutions like [the US Development Finance Corporation]. Especially in light of the mineral deal, where DFC will play a very important role with the US Ex-Im Bank and other institutions. We also want GE Vernova to be more active in Ukraine. We have a very good relationship with this company and have built two wind power stations with its technology. And now we want to see more US companies in the oil and gas sector. Today we just have technology partnerships with them, but I think it will be good if active investors come to develop new fields and drill in more difficult conditions, take more geologic risk.

What’s your message to DTEK employees, internally, to keep them rallied around a shared mission under these circumstances?

What’s important is not only to speak to our people, but to always deliver on your promises. For example, on this issue about the future of coal. There are tens of thousands of people working in this industry. That’s why we’re developing new gas projects, battery storage, and other things, so our people can see what the future looks like. And even in such dramatic conditions as we have in Ukraine, with such destruction, they need to be able to understand and trust me that they all have a future. We will protect them as we go through these difficulties. The three winters of the full-scale invasion have been evidence that what we promised is happening. For people in Ukraine, what’s important is to have not just hope, but confidence in the future.

Is that how you stay personally motivated as well?

Absolutely. We’ve been at war more than half of our 20 years. But it hasn’t stopped us from dreaming about the future and realizing these dreams. Every year we report another achievement. That’s what keeps me motivated, to believe that this company has a bright future. You can’t just concentrate on the war. You’ll never win it if you think only about the next day. And when you see how much [of DTEK’s network] has been recovered, it means that we never, never give up. I’m asked very often, since you know you will be attacked again, why bother with rebuilding? My response is, what’s the alternative? Just give up and give these stations to the Russians? No, never. We will never do that.