Key Points – The war in Ukraine has evolved into a strategic battle over energy infrastructure. While Russia continues its campaign of striking Ukraine’s power grid—reportedly disabling half of its capacity by mid-2024 and causing widespread blackouts—Ukraine has retaliated with a series of successful drone attacks on Russian oil refineries.
-In early 2025, these strikes hit major facilities like Ryazan and Volgograd, temporarily knocking out an estimated 4% of Russia’s total refining capacity.
-This tit-for-tat energy war sees Russia trying to cripple Ukraine’s ability to function, while Ukraine targets the core of Russia’s wartime economy and military fuel supply.
While Russia Targets Ukraine’s Grid, Ukraine Targets Refineries
While Russia’s war in Ukraine, now entering its fourth year, remains a territorial conflict, energy has become a key front in the effort to win it. Since the invasion began, Russian forces have pounded Ukraine’s power plants, hydroelectric dams, and nuclear sites – aiming to disable the grid, disrupt civilian life, and cripple the country’s defenses.
In response to Russia’s barrage of attacks against its energy infrastructure, Ukrainian forces have repeatedly targeted Russian fuel depots and refineries. The tactic not only hurts the Kremlin’s war machine, but impacts its energy-sector-based wartime economy, too. Ukraine’s strategic attacks have resulted in major damage to facilities far from the frontlines.
Why Ukraine Strikes Refineries
Throughout the conflict, Ukraine has successfully struck Russian refineries and power facilities.
In January and February 2025, Ukrainian drones successfully struck the Ryazan refinery in central Russia, igniting storage facilities, damaging hydrotreater units, and temporarily halting its crude distillation unit.
The facility is one of the five largest oil refineries in the country, providing fuel for the Moscow region and producing gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel, making it a high-value target for Ukraine.
The Volgograd refinery also suffered fires in early 2025 following multiple rounds of drone strikes. The facility, located in southern Russia, processes around 300,000 barrels of oil per day.
Also in early 2025, strikes hit Tuapse, Kirishi, Astrakhan, and Novokuibyshev. According to an estimate by Reuters, in the first three months of the year, Ukrainian attacks took out 3.3 million metric tonnes – some 4% – of Russia’s total refining capacity.
These strikes matter to Moscow; not just because of the impact it has on crucial military supply lines, but because the future of the war rests on Russia’s ability to withstand international sanctions and lean on its energy sector to maintain its precarious wartime economy.
Refined products, including gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel, form a major source of Kremlin revenue. Oil and gas revenue make up between one-third and one-half of Russia’s federal budget.
Ukraine’s Power Grid Reduced By Half
While Ukraine focuses on Russia’s oil refineries, Russian assaults have frequently targeted Ukraine’s power generation capacity.
By mid-2024, airstrikes and occupation had destroyed or disabled approximately 50% of Ukraine’s dispatchable electricity capacity, cutting output from around 13.5 GW to just 7-8 GW.
The collapse forced frequent power cuts and rolling blackouts, particularly during the winter of 2023-2024. The grid remains vulnerable, too. On June 6, 2025, massive Russian drone and missile strikes struck several Ukrainian regions, triggering power outages.
In January this year, Russia also launched a massive aerial attack that forced Ukraine to introduce preventive power cuts. These are not new tactics, either. On November 23, 2022, Russian attacks killed or injured more than 30 civilians and interrupted power access for millions throughout the country, according to the United Nations.
The attacks have been widely condemned as a war crime, including Human Rights Watch, which argued in December 2022 that “attacks on objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population” are prohibited by international law.
About the Author:
Jack Buckby is a British author, counter-extremism researcher, and journalist based in New York. Reporting on the U.K., Europe, and the U.S., he works to analyze and understand left-wing and right-wing radicalization, and reports on Western governments’ approaches to the pressing issues of today. His books and research papers explore these themes and propose pragmatic solutions to our increasingly polarized society. His latest book is The Truth Teller: RFK Jr. and the Case for a Post-Partisan Presidency.
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