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Russia attacked Ukraine’s energy facilities at least 27 times in December, with strikes carried out almost daily

The Insider

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From Dec. 1 to Dec. 31, 2025, Russian forces carried out at least 27 strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, according to calculations by The Insider. The attacks targeted substations, gas storage facilities, hydroelectric power plants (HPPs), thermal power plants (TPPs), and combined heat and power plants (CHPPs). Major sites in Kyiv, Odesa, Kherson and other cities were hit. In some cases, the strikes left more than 1 million consumers without electricity.

Hydroelectric, thermal, and combined heat and power plants were attacked at least 13 times during the month. In another 13 cases, strikes hit substations that convert voltage from 750 kilovolts to 330 kV and 150 kV and 110 kV, which play a key role in electricity distribution. Odesa region was hit particularly hard: at least nine facilities there were damaged by Russian strikes in December.

Russian strikes on Ukraine's energy infrastructure facilities in December 2025
The Insider

On Dec. 2, Russian forces attacked Ukraine’s gas infrastructure. Pro-Russian Telegram channels reported strikes on a gas storage facility in the Dnipropetrovsk Region. In the Odesa Region, drone attacks disrupted power supplies to 44,000 households. Power outages were also reported in the Chernihiv Region after drones struck energy facilities in the Koriukivka District.

On Dec. 3, authorities in the Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Odesa, and Chernihiv regions reported Russian strikes on infrastructure. According to a report by Ukraine’s Energy Ministry, 17,500 users were left without electricity in the Kharkiv Region, and about 5,000 each in the Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions also suffered outages.

On Dec. 4, reports said Russian drones attacked an energy supply facility in Odesa, sparking a fire and leaving nearly 61,000 households without power. The head of the Kherson Region’s military administration, Oleksandr Prokudin, said a series of Russian strikes numbering in the hundreds hit the Kherson combined heat and power plant, forcing it to halt operations. More than 40,500 customers were left without electricity. Prokudin added that regional authorities were considering alternative ways to supply power to affected homes.

On Dec. 6, Ukraine’s Energy Ministry reported Russian strikes on infrastructure in the Kyiv, Chernihiv, Lviv, Odesa, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolaiv, and Kharkiv regions. Russian drones attacked the Chernihiv combined heat and power plant and a gas-fired thermal power station nearby, resulting in a fire at the site. Several settlements in the region lost power. Authorities in the Lviv Region reported strikes on a thermal power plant in the Sheptytskyi District and a substation in the Stryi District. Russian pro-war volunteers claimed the Dobrotvir thermal power plant was hit. In the Dnipropetrovsk Region, authorities reported a voltage surge caused by a strike on an energy facility — likely the Kryvyi Rih thermal power plant, which pro-Russian sources said was also hit.

On the night of Dec. 7, energy infrastructure in Chernihiv and Poltava regions came under attack. Reports said a thermal energy facility in Chernihiv — apparently the Chernihiv combined heat and power plant — was struck again. In the Poltava Region, Russian forces attacked infrastructure in the Kremenchuk District, disrupting power supplies in the cities of Kremenchuk and Horishni Plavni.

On the evening of Dec. 8, Russian forces launched drone strikes on energy facilities in Sumy. More than a dozen drones were used, leaving the city without electricity.

On Dec. 9, Ukraine’s Energy Ministry and the company Naftogaz reported Russian drone attacks on gas infrastructure facilities. Strikes were also reported on critical infrastructure enterprises in the Nizhyn District of the Chernihiv Region.

On Dec. 10, grid operator Ukrenergo reported attacks on energy infrastructure in several regions. Households in Kharkiv and Mykolaiv regions were left without electricity.

On Dec. 11, reports said Russian forces attacked energy supply facilities in the Odesa and Poltava regions, causing fires.

On Dec. 12, Russian forces attacked energy infrastructure in the Odesa Region. Facilities in the Odesa District were hit, including one of DTEK’s substations — the 20th such facility damaged in the region. More than 120,000 users were left without power.

On the night of Dec. 12-13, Ukraine was hit by a large-scale Russian missile-and-drone attack that left more than 1 million households without electricity, according to a report by Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko. Energy infrastructure was attacked in the Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk, Chernihiv, Kirovohrad, and Mykolaiv regions. Pro-Russian Telegram channels claimed at least four substations were hit in the Odesa Region and one each in the Mykolaiv and Kirovohrad regions. The pro-Russian OSINT project LostArmour reported strikes on the Odesa CHPP and one of the city’s substations. Power outages were also reported in Kherson.

On Dec. 14, regional authorities in Odesa reported renewed attacks on energy infrastructure facilities. Russian drones struck the Sumy Region, and repair work on energy facilities was hampered by repeated attacks. In Kherson, a strike on critical infrastructure disrupted water supplies. In the Zaporizhzhia Region, two settlements were left without power after a Russian attack.

On the night of Dec. 15, Russian forces twice attacked an energy facility in the Dnipropetrovsk Region, Deputy Energy Minister Olha Yukhymchuk said. Ukrainian Railways warned that shelling had left sections of its network without power.

On Dec. 16, Ukrenergo reported that the entire part of the Donetsk Region controlled by Kyiv was left without electricity after overnight Russian strikes on energy facilities in several regions. Power outages were also reported in Dnipropetrovsk and Mykolaiv regions.

On Dec. 17, Ukraine’s Energy Ministry said Russian forces attacked infrastructure in the Dnipropetrovsk Region overnight. Pro-Russian Telegram channels reported drone strikes on an energy facility in Kryvyi Rih, followed by power outages in the city. Kherson military administration head Yaroslav Shanko said a strike on the Kherson CHPP left 40,000 households without heating.

On Dec. 18, energy infrastructure was attacked in the Cherkasy, Mykolaiv, Sumy, Zaporizhzhia, and Dnipropetrovsk regions. More than 180,000 customers were left without electricity. In Cherkasy, the pro-Russian open source intelligence (OSINT) project LostArmour claimed a substation in the Prydniprovskyi District was hit. Authorities reported partial power outages in the city.

On Dec. 19, electricity facilities were hit in the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Sumy, Kherson, Kharkiv, and Chernihiv regions. In Odesa, a strike on one of DTEK’s substations in the Kotovskyi settlement area left more than 65,000 consumers without power. In the Dnipropetrovsk Region, 26,000 households were left without electricity.

On the night of Dec. 20, Russian forces attacked energy infrastructure in the Donetsk, Mykolaiv, Dnipropetrovsk, and Kharkiv regions.

On Dec. 22, Ukraine’s Energy Ministry reported overnight Russian strikes on energy facilities in the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa, and Zhytomyr regions. In the Odesa Region, two DTEK facilities were hit, leaving more than 120,000 users without electricity.

On Dec. 23, Russian forces launched a large-scale strike — involving more than 600 drones and dozens of missiles — on infrastructure in western Ukraine. About 300,000 households were left without power in the Rivne Region, around 280,000 in the Ternopil Region, and another 300,000 in the Khmelnytskyi Region (1, 2, 3). Power outages were also reported in the Lviv, Odesa, Kyiv, Vinnytsia, Chernihiv, Zhytomyr, Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, and Sumy regions. Pro-Russian Telegram channels reported strikes on the Burshtyn TPP and power disruptions in the Ivano-Frankivsk Region.

On the night of Dec. 24, attacks on energy infrastructure left parts of the Kherson, Chernihiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Sumy, and Kharkiv regions without electricity. In the Kharkiv Region, a thermal power plant was attacked, including with Tornado-S multiple-launch rocket systems. In Kherson, a strike on critical infrastructure cut power to the Dniprovskyi District. In the Chernihiv Region, energy facilities were hit in the regional capital, the Pryluky District, and the city of Novhorod-Siverskyi, leaving several settlements without power. Additional strikes were reported in the area around Chernihiv during the day, cutting electricity to tens of thousands of customers.

On Dec. 25, Russian forces attacked energy infrastructure in the Sumy, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, and Chernihiv regions. In Chernihiv, drone strikes on energy facilities left tens of thousands of people without electricity. Russian forces also struck an energy facility in the Snovsk community. In the Chernihiv and Kharkiv regions, impacts were confirmed on distribution networks.

On Dec. 26, Russian attacks partially cut power in the Odesa, Mykolaiv, Kharkiv, Kherson, and Donetsk regions. In Mykolaiv, Molniya drones struck an energy facility, leaving parts of the city’s eponymous Mykolaiv District without electricity. The pro-Russian OSINT project LostArmour claimed that the Temvody substation (154/35/6 kV) was hit as part of the attack. In the south of the Odesa Region, Russian drones attacked two DTEK energy facilities. According to Odesa regional military administration head Oleh Kiper, the strikes targeted the Izmail and Odesa districts. A drone also attacked an energy facility in the Koriukivka community of the Chernihiv Region, cutting electricity to dozens of customers.

On the night of Dec. 27, Russian forces launched multiple strikes at the Kyiv Hydroelectric Power Plant. Drone attacks hit Kyiv’s TPP-5 and the Darnytsia CHPP, as well as Naftogaz gas production facilities. Nearly 750,000 households in Kyiv were left without electricity, along with 347,000 more in the Boryspil, Brovary, and Vyshhorod districts of the Kyiv Region. Heat supplies were cut to 2,600 residential buildings in Kyiv — nearly 40% of the city’s housing stock — as well as to parts of Obukhiv District in the Kyiv Region. Power outages were also reported in the Chernihiv Region, where 22,000 consumers were left without electricity. Volodymyr Kohut, acting head of the Poltava regional military administration, reported a strike on an energy facility in the region, which led to the introduction of emergency power outage schedules.

On Dec. 28, a Russian strike hit the Kherson CHPP. The facility was shelled using multiple-launch rocket systems. Part of the city was left without electricity, according to a report by Yaroslav Shanko, the head of the regional military administration.

On Dec. 29, Chernihivoblenergo reported a strike on an energy facility in one of the districts neighboring the region. As a result, parts of the Novhorod-Siverskyi District, which borders the Sumy Region, as well as the Koriukivka and Chernihiv districts, were partially left without power.

On the night of Dec. 30, Russian drones attacked energy infrastructure facilities in the Chernihiv and Nizhyn districts of the Chernihiv Region, according to a report by regional administration head Viacheslav Chaus. Ukraine’s Energy Ministry said more than 75,000 consumers were left without electricity. Power outages were also reported in the Kharkiv and Sumy regions. The ministry noted that some facilities were struck repeatedly.

On the night of Dec. 31, Russian forces attacked infrastructure in the Odesa Region, the Energy Ministry said. More than 170,000 households were left without electricity. Pro-Russian Telegram channels reported a hit on the Leninska substation (110/6 kV) in Odesa. Large parts of the Donetsk Region were also left without power, along with multiple households in the Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv regions.

Ukraine’s Energy Ministry warned almost daily of emergency power outages or restrictions on grid capacity in individual regions — or even nationwide.

In December, it also emerged that several previously undocumented Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy sector had taken place in November in the Odesa, Kharkiv, Donetsk, and Kherson regions.

Over the course of the entire full-scale invasion, Russia managed to cause prolonged nationwide power outages in Ukraine only in 2022 (on Nov. 15 and Nov. 23). In the fall of 2024, the Kremlin disabled about 80% of Ukraine’s generating capacity, damaging nearly all major thermal power plants. Even so, the country made it through the winter without any major issues.

As of early 2025, total direct damage to Ukraine’s energy sector was estimated at $20.5 billion. At least $67.8 billion will be needed to restore the country’s energy infrastructure through 2035.