Context: Storm Ulli hit Belarus in early 2026. In just a 24-hour period on January 8, high winds and heavy snowfall disrupted the power supply in 251 settlements across the country. The districts of Polatsk, Maladziechna, Slutsk, Minsk, Rechytsa, and Zhlobin were hit hardest by the severe weather.
Yauhen Horyn, host of the program “Trends” on the First Information TV Channel, spoke on January 7, 2026, about why “Berlin was plunged into chaos and medieval darkness during the New Year holidays,” leaving “tens of thousands of ordinary Germans ... abandoned to their fate without light or heat.”
“The cause of the collapse is not a hurricane or a war. The cause is ideology. While Germany was voluntarily shutting down nuclear power plants and destroying its own industry, its authorities committed an act of economic and energy vandalism unparalleled in modern history. Just six years ago, under Angela Merkel, the Datteln 4 coal-fired power plant — one of the world’s most modern and environmentally friendly facilities — was commissioned at a cost of more than €3 billion. It was built as a safeguard against a crisis, yet in 2025, it was demolished and razed to the ground on the orders of ‘green ideologues’ obsessed with net-zero emissions,” the host explained.
A major power outage did indeed strike Berlin, leaving tens of thousands of homes without electricity. The incident occurred on January 3, following the New Year holidays. The blackout was the result of sabotage: the left-wing extremist group Vulkan set fire to cables on a bridge near a power plant in the capital. The saboteurs claimed the attack was carried out to protect the Earth and life. The arson was committed to damage the fossil fuel economy. These far-left radicals are supporters of green energy; they set fire to the infrastructure because they are dissatisfied with German policy.
As for the Datteln 4 coal plant mentioned by Horyn, it was not demolished. This remains one of the most efficient coal-fired power stations in the world. In December 2025, it was sold to an investment firm of Czech origin. The footage aired on the Belarusian TV channel to confirm the demolition actually showed the Moorburg power plant. That facility was commissioned in 2015, closed six years later, and dismantling began in 2023. Authorities are planning construction of a green hydrogen plant in its place.
Neither Datteln 4 nor Moorburg — had the latter remained operational — could have protected Berlin from the blackout; the issue was not a domestic energy shortage, but the destruction of the cables that deliver power to consumers.
