Ukraine Implements Widespread Blackouts Following Russian Attacks on Power Infrastructure

Thu Oct 16 2025 02:48:41 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)

In response to ongoing assaults on its energy grid, Ukraine has initiated emergency power outages across most regions, marking the fourth consecutive winter of blackouts since the conflict with Russia escalated in 2022.

Ukraine has imposed emergency power outages in nearly all regions following a series of intense Russian missile and drone strikes on its energy infrastructure. The energy ministry confirmed that all areas but two are affected by blackouts, with only Donetsk and Chernihiv excluded from the outages. Meanwhile, Ukraine has intensified its strikes on Russian oil refineries, aiming to disrupt supplies and weaken Russia’s military capabilities.

Emergency power outages have been brought in across almost all of Ukraine after an intensive campaign of Russian air strikes on energy infrastructure.

This will be the fourth consecutive winter of blackouts throughout Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

The energy ministry said all but two regions were affected. Only the eastern Donetsk region at the forefront of the war is exempt, while the northern Chernihiv region is already facing hourly outages.

As well as targeting the power network, Russia has increasingly targeted Ukraine's railways. Ukraine has meanwhile ramped up attacks on Russian oil refineries, in border regions and beyond.

One oil depot in the Crimean peninsula - which Moscow illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014 - has been burning for three days following a second Ukrainian drone attack in a week.

The Marine Oil Terminal in Feodosia is the largest in Crimea and an important logistical link for Russian troops operating in Ukraine.

Kyiv's armed forces general staff said on Wednesday that 16 fuel tanks were damaged and that a large-scale blaze was continuing to burn.

The surge in drone attacks on oil refineries and pipelines has also led to fuel shortages and price rises in some parts of Russia - a development that Ukrainian leaders hope will hit Russia's war effort and help bring the Kremlin to the negotiating table.

The strikes have reduced Russian fuel exports to their lowest level since the start of the war, according to figures from the International Energy Agency.

Ukraine's energy ministry said emergency restrictions were being implemented because of the complicated situation. Emergency work was taking place in all regions affected by Russian attacks, and it urged consumers who still had power to use it sparingly.

Temperatures in parts of Ukraine were forecast to fall to 3C overnight into Thursday.

Russia justifies its attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure by claiming they are aimed at military objectives, but millions of civilians have suffered outages in recent weeks. On one night alone last week, a combined missile and drone attack caused power cuts in nine regions, from Kharkiv and Sumy in the north to Odesa in the south.

President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Moscow of trying to create chaos and apply psychological pressure on the population through strikes on energy facilities and railways.

Kyiv's ambitions to acquire long-range weapons to counter attacks have been met with caution from Western allies, wary of escalating the conflict. However, the Ukrainian leadership remains focused on targeting military rather than civilian infrastructure in retaliation.