As global leaders gather in Davos for the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2026, DTEK Chief Executive Officer Maxim Timchenko has published an article on the Forum's platform examining one of the defining challenges of modern security: the vulnerability of energy systems to targeted attack.
Writing under the theme of this year's meeting, 'A Spirit of Dialogue', Mr. Timchenko draws on Ukraine's experience to illustrate how energy infrastructure has become a frontline of war. Power plants, grids, gas production facilities and mines have faced unprecedented attacks, with President Zelensky declaring an energy emergency on 14 January 2026. The resulting power outages impact critical services including water treatment and transportation, affecting millions of civilians during the harshest winter months.
DTEK's coal-fired power plants have been attacked more than 220 times since February 2022. Large, centralised fossil fuel assets have proven unable to provide the security Ukraine requires on their own. In response, DTEK and its shareholder Rinat Akhmetov have initiated the biggest investment programme in the company's history to fund the construction of decentralised energy resources like wind, solar and energy storage. These renewable assets offer not only clean technology but also more resilient infrastructure—smaller distributed generation is harder to target, quicker to repair, and more capable of stabilising the grid during emergencies.
DTEK's participation at Davos this year reflects the critical importance of international partnership in addressing Ukraine's energy crisis. In the short term, emergency measures are required to secure temporary replacement solutions, including the deployment of equipment to stabilise supply during the current heating season. Over the medium to long term, the priority is to mobilise dedicated funding through mechanisms such as the Ukraine Energy Support Fund to enable the procurement and manufacturing of new equipment.
The revitalisation of Ukraine's energy system is being driven by a coalition of partners spanning governments, international financial institutions, private investors, technology companies and insurers. As Mr. Timchenko notes, this is exactly the kind of cooperation the world will need more of in an era of instability and fragmentation.
Read the full World Economic Forum article here:
https://www.weforum.org/stories/2026/01/frontline-security-energy-lessons-ukraine/
