Oct 23, 2025
3 min read
Russian-modified drones are penetrating Ukraine's defenses at a faster rate than before, targeting energy infrastructure.
How Russia's New Moon Approach Explains New Threats to Ukraine
Russia's revolutionary drones are piercing Ukraine's defenses at a higher level than ever before, laying deep electrical and thermal power.
KYIV, Ukraine — A Russian drone strike was surgically precise, destroying a giant transformer at a key power plant in the Ukrainian capital.
"There is nothing left to repair," Mykola Sviridenko, who lives near Thermal Station 5, a sprawling Soviet-era building with two giant steam pipes that supplies electricity and heat to hundreds of thousands of Kyiv residents, told Al Jazeera.
He witnessed a preemptive attack on October 10 that caused several explosions and a large fire at a power plant.Officials say that 465 drones and 32 missiles targeted several Ukrainian cities in this attack.
"It's not the first time the station has been shelled," another local resident, Artem Gavrylenko, told Al Jazeera in front of his five-story building.
Since the winter of 2022, Russia has been trying to attack Ukraine's energy infrastructure as the country tries to power its homes and factories in sub-zero temperatures.
Despite surviving those attacks, the recent attack on the Kyiv train station represents a new phase in Russia's campaign to destroy Ukraine's power, transmission and heating stations, as well as natural gas fields, pipelines and underground reservoirs.Analysts say this is a shift in Russian tactics that could test Ukraine like never before.
On October 10, Gavrilenko's building - and most of the city of nearly four million people - was without electricity and running water for most of the day.Petrol or diesel generators - some chained to walls or trees to prevent theft - are buzzing next to shops, restaurants and private homes, as people run out of their power banks.
For the first time since Russia began its full-scale invasion, a metro line in Kiev stopped working for several hours, bringing traffic to a standstill on bridges between the left and right banks of the Dnieper River that runs through the city.Energy Minister Mykola Kolesnik said at a press conference on Monday that Russia has started deliberately attacking facilities that supply natural gas.
"The enemy will not stop, in early October we saw more than six attacks [on natural gas transport] and they will continue," he said.
"What we are seeing is a change in the enemy's strategy, which is causing a regional deficit in power generation and transmission," he said.
The rioters are being forced to leave millions of civilians in the coming days as the weather forecast predicts an unseasonably cold season with lots of snow.
Moscow uses hundreds of drones for each attack, most of which have been modified to fly faster, at higher altitudes and dive at steep angles to their targets to avoid being shot down or intercepted.
Russia has also modified its missiles with software updates to avoid complex trajectories and confusion from the West, including manufactured patriots.
According to the analysis of the Center for Information Stability in September, the level changed significantly from 37% in September to 37% in August to 60% in September.
The results were incredible.
On August 28, Russian missiles destroyed a plant near East Kyiv meant to produce Turkish-made birctar drones.After two missiles were found in the nearby apartment building, removed two of her floor, including four customs, including four children, including four children, and linked several others.
“I woke up and automatically pulled the blanket over my head,” Anatoly, a 63-year-old retiree, told Al Jazeera hours later, explaining how the blanket he was wearing saved his face from the dagger-like shards of glass.
Standing next to a crew of rescue workers, he spit on cigarette after cigarette and chatted with what was left of his possessions, a dish, a few cupboards and a kit.
The problem of corruption is even worse.
During the past, Ukraine, Ukraine Anti-Corruption to open a great work to increase the cost of anti-Drone.
The scheme was reported to be a member of parliament, city authorities and national guard soldiers, an unknown person and an unknown suspect.
"There must be full and fair accountability for this," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address.
The corruption case highlights Ukraine's failure to protect its energy infrastructure, which has been under attack since October 2022, analysts say.
"Instead of leaving [the infrastructure] in ashes for three years, they put a roof around it," Aljajera told Aljajera of the University of Bremen, which reported hundreds.
As a result, the energy infrastructure has almost collapsed.
"We're going to have a cruel winter ahead,"
He pleaded not guilty because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
"Judging by the level of destruction, we cannot repair what was destroyed," Injin added.
Meanwhile, the people of Kyiv are preparing for the lack of electricity and heat by buying gas canisters, power banks, electric blankets with batteries, rechargeable lights of all kinds, or putting up Christmas garlands that light up when the power goes out and offer some light, long before the holidays.
Many of them even violate fire prevention rules by installing wood-burning stoves in their apartments.
Russian President Vladimir Putin "will not catch us like he did three years ago," Olena Korotych, a mother of two, told Al Jazeera outside a supermarket where she bought flashlights.
At filling stations, employees know how to help with anti-aging items - something that is banned in many countries.
A bus stop away from Thermal Power Plant 5, Arslan Atmordov, an immigrant from Tajikistan, now uses such natural gas tanks to power the gleaming grill at his shawarma kiosk, instead of the electricity he once relied on.
“We are all [natural] gas,” Atmara said.“Otherwise our costs would double.”
