Russia Pounds Ukraine’s Energy Grid as Kyiv Steps Up Attacks on Oil Refineries

Ukraine’s power grid came under renewed attack this week, with Russian forces using missiles and drones to strike energy facilities deep behind the frontline.

“Another massive attack on our energy industry,” German Galushchenko, Ukraine’s energy minister, wrote in a social-media post.

According to Mr. Galushchenko, key power stations were struck in Ukraine’s western, central, and southern regions, including Poltava, Zaporizhzhia, Lviv, and Vinnytsia.

On May 8, an unknown number of Russian missiles and drones struck nearly a dozen Ukrainian energy facilities, causing significant damage and widespread power outages.

Three Soviet-era thermal power plants were damaged by repeated barrages, Ukrainian officials said.

In line with its standing policy of wartime secrecy, Kyiv did not provide the names—or exact locations—of the energy facilities that were hit.

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In the immediate wake of the strikes, Ukrenergo, Ukraine’s national power grid operator, announced plans to ration electricity in nine regions of the country.

“Many important power stations were damaged,” company CEO Volodymyr Kudrytskyi said in remarks cited by local media.

“The damage is on quite a large scale,” he added. “There has been a significant loss of power generation.”

According to Ihor Klymenko, Ukraine’s interior minister, at least two people were injured by repeated barrages in the Kyiv region.

Along with energy infrastructure, dozens of homes, several public transport vehicles, and a fire station were also damaged, the minister said.

The strikes have since been confirmed by Russia’s defense ministry.

“The Russian Armed Forces delivered a combined strike this morning by seaborne and air-launched long-range precision weapons ... against Ukrainian energy sites and military-industrial enterprises,” the defense ministry said in a May 8 statement.

Russian forces, the ministry added, used combat drones and Kinzhal hypersonic missiles to hit their intended targets.

“The strike’s objectives were achieved,” it said. “All designated targets were destroyed.”

According to the defense ministry, the combined strike “substantially degraded Ukraine’s ability to manufacture military equipment and deploy Western-supplied armaments to the frontline.”

Since last October, Russian forces have carried out frequent strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure, leading to frequent blackouts and energy disruptions.

Kyiv says the strikes are meant to ratchet up pressure on the civilian population and should therefore be regarded as Russian “war crimes.”

Moscow, for its part, claims that it uses precision weapons to avoid killing civilians and that the strikes serve a purely military purpose.

Smoke billows after Ukraine's SBU drone strikes a refinery, in Ryazan, Ryazan Region, Russia, in this screen grab from a video, on March 13, 2024. (Reuters)

Since the start of the year, Ukraine has stepped up its attacks on oil refineries located inside Russian territory, which have caused varying degrees of damage.

Kyiv says Russian oil refineries help fuel the ongoing invasion of eastern Ukraine—now in its third year—and should therefore be viewed as legitimate targets.

On May 9, the governor of Russia’s Bashkiria region said a large petrochemical plant was up and running again after having been struck by Ukrainian drones.

According to reports in the Russian press, the attack on the plant damaged a pumping station but didn’t cause any casualties.

On the same day, a drone attack damaged several storage tanks and started a fire at a fuel depot in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region, local officials said.

The same facility was targeted by Ukrainian drones late last month, causing significant damage and temporarily halting operations.

According to a NATO official recently cited by Reuters, the ongoing strikes on Russian energy facilities may have reduced the country’s total oil-refining capacity by as much as 15 percent.

“Fewer and fewer of these types of Russian energy infrastructure are safe from potential strikes,” the official said.

Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022 with the stated aim of protecting Russian speakers in the country’s east and halting NATO’s further expansion.

Seven months later, Moscow effectively annexed four regions of southern and eastern Ukraine, which it now regards as Russian Federation territory.

Kyiv, backed by its powerful Western allies, has vowed to continue fighting numerically superior Russian forces until all of the lost regions are recovered.

Reuters contributed to this report.