Ministry of Energy of Ukraine: Power outages in 5 regions due to Russian strikes, regional energy company employee injured

Some consumers in Odesa, Poltava, Sumy, Kharkiv and Chernihiv regions are temporarily left without electricity due to hostilities and Russian shelling of energy infrastructure facilities, the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine reported on March 25.

“The most difficult situation is currently in Chernihiv region. There, as a result of several consecutive enemy attacks, energy equipment was damaged, which necessitated the forced use of hourly outages. The restrictions will be lifted immediately after the situation in the energy system stabilizes,” the report says.

The Ministry of Energy of Ukraine also noted that as a result of the Russian attack on the Khmelnytskyi regional energy facility, one of the company’s employees was injured.

Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion in February 2022, Russia has been striking at Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. Since the beginning of autumn 2025, Russian troops have intensified their shelling of Ukrainian energy facilities.

Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko announced on February 25 that he had sent materials to the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court regarding Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure from July 2025 to February 2026.

The Security Service of Ukraine qualifies Russia’s attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure as crimes against humanity. The Security Service of Ukraine previously noted that since the beginning of the 2026 heating season, at least 256 Russian air attacks on Ukrainian energy facilities and heat supply systems have been documented.

In early February 2026, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated that Russia allegedly did not launch attacks on civilian facilities, and that Ukraine was the first to strike its energy facilities.

According to the UN, as of January 2026, Ukraine had lost more than half of the electricity generation capacity it had before the full-scale invasion due to occupation and damage from attacks, leaving it with only 11 GW of generation capacity, significantly less than the 18 GW needed during peak winter consumption.

The gap between generation capacity and consumption needs has caused prolonged power outages.

First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Energy Denys Shmyhal said on March 25 that the World Bank estimates that Ukraine will need almost $91 billion over the next decade to restore its energy sector.