World heavyweight boxing champion Oleksandr Usyk is supporting efforts to rebuild his country’s energy system after brutal russian attacks, which continued on Wednesday. Ahead of the boxer's May 18 fight with Tyson Fury to decide the Undisputed Heavyweight Champion of the World, Usyk is partnering Ukrainian energy company DTEK to draw global attention to the plight of Ukraine’s civilian power system.
Since launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, russia has damaged or destroyed 50% of the country’s energy system. Just this spring, the enemy has damaged or destroyed 80% of Ukraine’s thermal power capacity, 30% of hydro-electrical facilities and dozens of critical substations across the country. According to the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine, the damage to the power system, excluding the latest attacks, had already amounted to $11.5 billion.
Usyk will be supported in Riyadh’s Kingdom Stadium by around 30 war veterans who have returned to work at DTEK after frontline action in some of the war’s most intense battles.
The #FightForLight partnership between Usyk and DTEK aims to highlight the critical state of Ukraine’s energy sector to global allies and to appeal for urgent technical assistance (such as replacement generators, transformers and turbines) to energy companies across the sector, before the onset of winter in six months’ time.
DTEK CEO Maxim Timchenko said: "DTEK is doing everything possible to draw the attention of the world community to the energy infrastructure destroyed by the enemy and the need to restore it and protect it from new criminal attacks by russia. We appreciate that Oleksandr Usyk and his team share these aspirations and will help the voice of Ukrainian energy workers be heard. We have a common goal and a common task – to protect our people and Ukrainian civilian infrastructure, so that every Ukrainian family has light and heat".
Critically, restoring the energy sector also depends on rapid deliveries of air defence systems and ammunition from Ukraine’s allies.
NOTE TO EDITORS: A russian missile attack on three DTEK power stations early on Wednesday morning caused further destruction to energy infrastructure already under urgent repair after four previous strikes in March and April.
