Unprecedented assault: Ukraine withstands the largest attack on its energy sector

On Friday morning, 151 Russian rockets and drones targeted thermal power plants, power substations, and hydroelectric power plants in Ukraine. "This was the largest and most complex attack on the energy sector throughout the entire war," states Oleksandr Kharchenko, director of the Energy Research Center.

Simultaneously with the physical attack, Russia launched cyberattacks against the Ukrainian energy system. The Ukrainian military reported that out of 151 strike means used in Friday's attacks, the air defense forces intercepted 92.

According to a statement from Ukrenergo at 3 PM GMT, approximately 2 million customers in Ukraine were left without electricity.

"The Ukrainian energy system held up," Oleksandr Kharchenko, director of the Energy Research Center, told Forbes.ua. "It was the largest and most complex attack on energy facilities during the war. The targets included dozens of energy facilities – spanning almost the entire generation capacity, except for nuclear, and the key substations. Thankfully, the actual damage was significantly less, due to air defense and physical protection measures, safeguarding a lot of valuable equipment," he added.

When asked about the objectives the Russians aimed for, Kharchenko mentioned they sought a complete blackout.

"Alongside the missile attacks, there was a cyberattack on the energy infrastructure, which was successfully repelled. They also attempted a misinformation campaign via mass media and Telegram channels, trying to incite panic by falsely claiming that the Dnieper Hydroelectric Power Plant would collapse and cause widespread flooding," Kharchenko explains.

"That's preposterous," he emphasizes, clarifying that destroying the dam of the power plant with rockets is nearly impossible. "The system withstood the assault, maintained control, and we initiated emergency energy imports from EU countries, further bolstering our resilience," he adds.

Electricity imports are being facilitated from countries including Poland, Slovakia, and Romania.

Ukrenergo, in a statement at 5 PM GMT, has stated that a comprehensive damage assessment of the Dnieper Hydroelectric Power Station will take three days. "There's no risk of the dam bursting. Its surface is damaged, but the structure remains sound. In the engine room, parts of the ceiling and walls have crumbled. The station will need repairs to its electrical and hydraulic equipment. It will all be restored, only time is needed," it reports.

The Ukrainian energy company Naftogaz announced on Friday that a series of overnight Russian shellings had damaged its facilities and installations. Naftogaz did not specify which facilities were affected but confirmed that repair works are in progress.

"Repair teams are already addressing the damages. Power supply to some of the facilities has been reinstated. Gas industry workers are fixing the damaged gas networks," according to a statement cited by the Reuters agency.

Russian forces primarily targeted critical infrastructure and energy facilities in the Ivano-Frankivsk and Zakarpattia regions during Thursday night and Friday morning, as reported by the governors of these regions. Overall, the attackers used drones and missiles in the regions of Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Khmelnytskyi, Odessa, Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava, Mykolaiv, Vinnytsia, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Zakarpattia.

The "Monitorwar" channel posted a map showing the trajectories of all the missiles and drones that traversed Ukraine.