In the autumn of 2025, Russia again intensified attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure ahead of winter. As a result of the strikes, residential buildings, schools, and hospitals have been left without electricity, heating, and water. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have previously described the destruction of such civilian infrastructure as a war crime, while Kyiv calls these actions state terrorism.
One of the largest strikes came on the night of September 28. According to President Volodymyr Zelensky, Russian forces launched more than 500 drones and over 40 missiles, including Kinzhal missiles, and the attack lasted more than 12 hours. Four people were killed in Kyiv, including a 12-year-old girl, while more than 27 people were injured in Zaporizhzhia.
Russian strikes then continued on October 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, and 7. Power disruptions were reported in the Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Sumy, Chernihiv, Odesa, and other regions. In the Kyiv region, the sarcophagus at the Chornobyl nuclear power plant was left without electricity after a strike on a substation. In Odesa, about 50,000 residents lost power, and in Pryluky in the Chernihiv region more than 60,000 households were affected.
“It is already clear that the coming winter will be the hardest for Kharkiv in all the years of the war,” mayor Ihor Terekhov said, reporting that two transformer substations had been destroyed.
Ukrainian authorities say strikes on Russia’s power system will not go unanswered. Zelensky said Moscow should understand the risk of a blackout in the Russian capital if attacks on Ukraine’s energy sector continue. Against that backdrop, Ukrainian forces began striking Russian energy facilities in late September. The main impact so far has been in Belgorod, where after attacks on September 28 and October 5, tens of thousands of people were left without electricity, and some localities also lost water supply. Outages were also reported in the Kursk, Rostov, and Bryansk regions.