Over two years, Russia has carried out 25 massive attacks on Ukraine’s energy sector
Over the past two years, from September 2022 to September 2024, the aggressor country has carried out 25 massive missile and drone attacks on Ukraine’s energy system, jeopardizing its stability and integrity. This is evidenced by data published on the Energy Map portal.
In 2022, 11 massive strikes were recorded, in 2023 – 5, and in 2024 – 9. In total, the aggressor fired more than 1,400 missiles of various types and 500 strike drones.
Among the missiles, the enemy used cruise missiles the most – about 1,200 units, of which three-quarters were shot down by Ukrainian air defense. The Ukrainian defense forces also destroyed about half of the guided aircraft missiles, while Russian anti-aircraft and ballistic missiles usually hit their targets.
Another significant threat is drones, 98% of which are Iranian-designed strike drones of the “Shahed” type. Ukrainian defense has eliminated about 90% of the drones used by Russia. UAVs first began to be actively used in October 2022, and peak performance was recorded in August 2024, when 109 drones were launched in one wave, 99 of which were destroyed.
Attacks by Russian troops have caused significant damage to energy infrastructure, most notably in the regions of Dnipro, Lviv, Vinnytsia, Zaporizhzhia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kyiv, and Kharkiv. In these regions, 10 or more of the 25 attacks caused damage to energy facilities.
“As a result of the occupation and attacks in 2022-2023, Ukraine’s power system lost about 21 GW of capacity. In 2024, the losses from the missile and drone campaign are estimated at more than 9 GW of thermal and hydro generation. In addition to generation, Russia also regularly strikes at critical power grid nodes in order to destabilize the power system and limit the ability to transmit electricity within the country, as well as complicate its imports. It is obvious that the enemy will strike again, perhaps even before the beginning of winter,” said Oksana Zuieva, senior open data expert at DiXi Group.
* Over the course of more than 2.5 years of war, Russia has attacked Ukraine’s energy sector much more frequently. This analysis covers only cases of massive, systematic attacks on energy infrastructure confirmed by the Ministry of Energy and Ukrenergo.