Russia launches massive missile, drone attack on Ukraine’s energy and gas infrastructure

Russia launched a new wave of attacks against several regions of Ukraine on the night of March 6-7, 2025. Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said Russian armed forces targeted Ukraine’s energy and gas infrastructure in a “massive missile and drone” attack.

Officials also report the port city of Odesa in the south and Kharkiv in the east were subjected to waves of attacks that left energy infrastructure damaged and private homes on fire.

“For the fourth night in a row, the enemy has been launching devastating strikes on DTEK energy facilities in the Odesa region. In the last 2.5 weeks, this is already the sixth attack,” DTEK energy company reported .

The local authorities reported that the energy infrastructure and residential housing in the southern port city of Odesa were damaged.

Ukraine’s energy company Naftohaz confirmed an overnight attack on its gas infrastructure – the 17th of its kind, according to the company’s head, Roman Chumak . He said there are no reported casualties, but teams are still assessing the damage.

“We are doing and will do everything possible to ensure that the country has gas,” Chumak says, praising staff for “their work in challenging conditions”.

The head of the Chernihiv Regional Military Administration Vyacheslav Chaus reported that a “production facility” was damaged outside Pryluky in the Chernihiv region . 

Russians also struck a residential area in Konstiantynivka, the Donetsk region. They killed one civilian man and injured another in the bombardment. In the morning, emergency personnel retrieved the body of the deceased from beneath the rubble of a destroyed building.

The attacks damaged 33 private homes, eight apartment buildings, an administrative building, a store, four vehicles, and eight garages.

In western Ukraine, local authorities in the Ternopil region reported that interruptions to gas supplies to the public were possible after “a critical industrial facility” had been targeted. Moreover, in Western Ukraine, Russia attacked infrastructure in Transcarpathia, but the regional administration reported that air defenses intercepted the attack and no damage was caused.

According to the local authorities across Ukraine, at least a total of 18 people, including four children, have been wounded in Russia’s overnight attack.

The Air Force’s air surveillance troops detected and tracked 261 Russian drones and missiles – 67 missiles and 194 attack UAVs and decoy drones of various types, including:

• 35 Kh-101/Kh-55 cruise missiles;
• 8 Kalibr cruise missiles;
• 3 Iskander-M/KN-23 ballistic missiles;
• 4 S-300 anti-aircraft surface-to-air missiles;
• 8 Kh-59/69 cruise missiles;
• 194 Shahed-type attack UAVs and other types of decoy drones.
• As of 10:00, 134 air targets were confirmed to have been shot down:
• 25 Kh-101/Kh-55 cruise missiles;
• 8 Kalibr cruise missiles;
• 1 Kh-59/69 cruise missile;
• 100 Shahed-type attack UAVs (other types of drones).

Additionally, up to 10 Russian missiles (not included in the statistics of those shot down) disappeared from radar.

Ukrainian navy spokesman Dmytro Pletenchuk said this large-scale combined attack involved Russian ships based in the Black Sea. He told Ukrainian TV that Russians fired up to 20 missiles overnight from the Black Sea. But, he goes on, Russia’s Black Sea fleet is still “less active” than last year.

Earlier, the Energy Minister of Ukraine Herman Halushchenko stated that since the onset of the full-scale invasion, Russia has carried out more than 30 large-scale attacks on Ukraine’s energy facilities, causing billions of dollars worth of damage.

According to the official, Russia is deliberately using energy infrastructure as a means of pressure, seeking to deprive Ukraine of electricity and heat. During each massive attack, the aggressor country launches 100 to 300 munitions that destroy power plants, substations, power lines, and gas facilities.

In addition, targeted attacks on energy facilities are carried out daily, and attacks on critical infrastructure near nuclear power plants create the threat of a nuclear accident.

As of now, Russia controls 18 GW of power generating capacity, including hydro and thermal power plants, as well as the largest nuclear power plant in Europe – the Zaporizhzhia NPP.

Halushchenko also noted that on the eve of the full-scale invasion, Ukraine disconnected from the power grids of Russia and Belarus. Initially, the isolation was planned to last three days, but the return to the enemy’s power grid did not take place. The Ukrainian power grid lasted 21 days in autonomous operation, and on March 16, 2022, it was synchronized with the European ENTSO-E grid.

Previously, a joint investigation by the Physicians for Human Rights and also the Truth Hounds  revealed the consequences of Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, documenting how systematic strikes have reduced available power capacity by 85% and severely compromised healthcare delivery in the country.

The Prosecutor General’s Office considers the attacks on Ukrainian energy facilities to be a component of genocide. According to the Commission of Inquiry on Violations in Ukraine, authorized by the UN Human Rights Council, Russian shelling of energy infrastructure may constitute a crime against humanity. The International Criminal Court has already issued the first arrest warrants for those responsible for the attacks.

According to two USAID officials working on the agency’s Ukraine mission, the State Department terminated a US Agency for International Development (USAID) initiative that has invested hundreds of millions of dollars to help restore Ukraine’s energy grid from attacks by the Russian military. 

By way of background, Ukrainian experts point out that the US is trying to capitulate Ukraine. Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff said that the US administration has an idea to “get down the framework for a peace agreement”. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed hopes for a “meaningful meeting”. 

On March 5, Washington suspended intelligence sharing with Kyiv, US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz confirmed.

Militarnyy, a Ukrainian military news outlet, cited sources on March 7, saying that the US aerospace company Maxar Technologies has denied Ukraine access to its satellite images. The official explanation provided by Maxar’s administration to users was that the restriction was made “in response to an administrative request”. In fact, the disconnection was due to a US government ban on sharing intelligence data with Ukraine, Militarnyy wrote.

Former CIA Director John Brennan accused Donald Trump of “extortion” for halting the sharing of US intelligence with Ukraine. He stated that this “absolutely unprecedented” move could have “devastating consequences” for Kyiv, the Huffington Post reported.

Brennan explained that European countries did not have the capability to provide Ukraine with the same level of intelligence as the US. He emphasized that such intelligence was critical for the Ukrainian government, military, security forces, and intelligence services and warned that removing it would significantly weaken them.

Brennan claimed that in his nearly 35 years of experience, he had never seen US intelligence sharing halted for political reasons or to pressure a partner like Ukraine into complying with an administration’s demands. He warned that if this policy remained in place for a prolonged period, it could have disastrous consequences on the battlefield.