Ukraine's drone blockade of Crimea widened across the Sea of Azov overnight on 12–13 July. The Unmanned Systems Forces said they struck 15 Russian vessels, nine energy nodes, and four air-defense assets.

Commander Robert “Madyar” Brovdi said the maritime targets included seven tankers, five dry-cargo ships, one ferry, and two tugs. Censor reported that the same operation hit the “Crimea” electricity-transfer point on the Kuban-Crimea energy bridge for the second time in 48 hours. Brovdi also claimed the destruction of an S-400 launcher, a Tor system, and two radar complexes. The damage could not be independently confirmed.

RBC-Ukraine reported that NASA FIRMS satellite data showed thermal anomalies in the Sea of Azov and at the Port Kavkaz railway station, a transport hub serving routes to Crimea.

A wider FIRMS screenshot also showed a hotspot south of the occupied city of Mariupol. NASA FIRMS detects heat signatures but cannot determine their cause.

The strikes targeted several parts of the network linking occupied Crimea to Russia. By hitting shipping, power infrastructure, and air defenses together, Ukraine is tightening the noose around occupied Crimea's supply lines. Each strike makes the remaining links harder to use.

Crimea.Realities reported that Russian authorities kept the Kerch Bridge closed for more than 11 hours, from 9:51 p.m. on 12 July until 9:06 a.m. the next morning. Local residents reported drones, air-defense fire, and explosions around Kerch throughout the closure

Citing the Crimean Wind monitoring channel, Ukrinform reported that fires broke out near Cape Fonar, where Russian air defense units are deployed.

How Ukraine tightened the ring around Crimea

The operation followed a week of strikes on the same routes. On 10 July, Ukrainian forces hit vessels, both Azov loading ports, five oil depots, and Crimea’s power grid.

Russia then halted traffic through the Don-Azov shipping channel and stopped accepting requests for passage through the Kerch Strait. By 12 July, the Unmanned Systems Forces said they had struck 90 vessels in seven days. Brovdi put the total for 6–13 July at 105 successful strikes on vessels.

Ukrainian factories running on a few hours of electricity a day when Russia targets the Ukrainian power grid are buying up the Netherlands' worn-out wind turbines and putting them back to work, De Telegraaf reported. Hundreds of Dutch machines are nearing the end of their working lives at home. Instead of the scrapheap, many are being refurbished and shipped east.

A second life in a war zone

A Ukrainian entrepreneur named Serhii has already bought six of them. He runs a factory in the south that presses oil for the world market, and he wants nine turbines standing on a nearby hill by year's end. His power supply is the reason. The grid gives him roughly two hours of electricity, then ten hours without. A single Dutch turbine can change that math.

The war reaches the machines too — Russian attacks target not only substations and conventional power plants but also solar and wind arrays. A Russian drone hit the blades of one, Serhii said, and his crew set about repairing it. He plans to order three more before the year is out.

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Between 700 and 800 Dutch machines face the scrap heap in the coming years, with no reuse in sight. Yet many still have fifteen to twenty years of life left. Owners are replacing them with turbines that generate five or six times as much power, a practice the industry calls repowering, according to De Telegraaf.

The reconstruction billions

The Dutch wind trade association, NedZero, sees a bigger prize in Ukraine. It named a vice-chair from the diplomatic world, Bert van der Lingen, a former Dutch ambassador to Lithuania with experience in emerging markets.

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Van der Lingen knows the lenders financing Ukraine's reconstruction, including the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Alongside the tens of billions of euros pledged for weapons and drones, he said, civil support is growing, with tens of billions more set aside.

The catch is scale. Support "tickets" from the big lenders start at €10 million ($11 million), too large for a handful of turbines. So the industry bundles small installations into single big projects, which is where Ukraine's needs become the selling point. The turbines help decentralize Ukraine's grid and deliver green power, and Dutch firms could even become co-producers of wind farms. Eight turbines, he said, are ready to go.

Ukraine's allies have pledged at least €375 million to keep its battered power grid running through winter. Partners announced the funding for repairing energy infrastructure and for new contributions to the Ukraine Energy Support Fund at the fourth G7+ energy coordination meeting in Gdańsk, First Deputy Prime Minister and Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal wrote on Facebook.

Russia has struck Ukraine's energy system more than 6,000 times since 2022.

Donors break down the pledges

Shmyhal listed the contributions: $175 million from the US, €137 million from Sweden, €77 million from Norway, €4 million from Lithuania, €2.125 million from Estonia, and €550,000 from Iceland.

Twenty countries, EU representatives, and six international organizations joined the session, known as the "energy Ramstein", to weigh Ukraine's needs ahead of the heating season.

Fund still trails the need

Beyond the €295 million for repairs, distributed generation requires about €192 million more, and building an emergency reserve and buying critical equipment needs nearly €148 million, according to the minister.

To get through next winter, Ukraine must repair and restore more than 3 gigawatts of thermal generation, he added, after Russian strikes damaged or destroyed all 15 of the country's thermal power plants. Direct damage to the sector now nears $25 billion, with full reconstruction estimated at about $91 billion.

Kyiv ties repairs to EU integration

Shmyhal set Ukraine's 2026-2027 priorities as keeping the grid resilient under fire while fully integrating it into Europe's energy market. That means protecting infrastructure, restoring lost capacity, expanding distributed generation, pumping gas into underground storage, and building cross-border interconnectors with EU neighbors.

Ukraine's fund for repairing its war-battered power grid is €650 million short of what it needs for winter. On the eve of the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Gdańsk, the European Commission, Ukraine's Energy Ministry, and the Energy Community Secretariat urged current and would-be donors to channel funds into the Ukraine Energy Support Fund, so critical equipment can be bought and infrastructure repaired before the cold sets in.

Since 2022, G7+ countries have put €1.95 billion through the fund to keep Ukraine's grid standing under Russian fire, money spent on priorities set by Kyiv's Energy Ministry to build a strategic equipment reserve, speed up procurement, and shorten delivery times for critical parts. 

Fund runs low before heating season

First Deputy Prime Minister and Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal said that partners have contributed more than €300 million this year, but the fund still faces over €650 million in unmet needs.

Without new contributions, the next round of projects will be stopped, he warned.

The parties stressed that preparing for winter demands coordinated and urgent action, and that the G7+ energy coordination group is still working to mobilize what Ukraine needs to get through the season.

Russia targets the grid each winter

Russia has hammered Ukraine's energy system every winter since 2022. Its 2025-26 campaign ran more than 257 strikes on power infrastructure by February and damaged or destroyed all 15 of Ukraine's thermal power plants, yet failed to split the grid or break public will.

The grid survived on imports and emergency repairs, with little buffer left. Direct damage to the energy sector now nears $25 billion, with full reconstruction estimated at about $91 billion.

Gdańsk conference opens this week

The conference widens its appeal to a large audience. URC 2026 runs 25-26 June in Gdańsk and draws roughly 5,000 participants, including heads of state, government officials, financial institutions, and business, with Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko leading Ukraine's delegation, per UkrInform. 

A Russian-installed energy authority in occupied Crimea said on 21 June that electricity consumption limits are being introduced across the peninsula following what it described as “accidents” on the local power grid.

The measures come amid continued Ukrainian strikes on occupied Crimea targeting logistics, transport, and energy infrastructure. In recent days, Ukrainian forces have reported attacks on transport routes, fuel facilities, and infrastructure used to support Russian military supply chains across the peninsula.

In a statement published by “Krymenergoinform,” residents were told that rolling restrictions on electricity use will be introduced across different regions of Crimea.

The announcement did not provide details on the cause or location of the reported grid disruptions.

Strikes reported near Crimean Bridge supply routes

On the morning of 21 June, strikes were reported on logistics infrastructure linked to the Crimean Bridge crossing between Crimea and Russia, including fuel handling and transport nodes on the Russian side of the Kerch Strait.

The Crimean Bridge remains a key logistics artery connecting occupied Crimea with Russia and a central component of Russian supply routes into the peninsula and onward to occupied territories and frontline positions in southern Ukraine.

Pressure grows on Crimea’s logistics system

Ukrainian officials say the broader campaign aims to weaken Russia’s ability to sustain military operations in southern Ukraine by disrupting Crimea’s role as a logistics hub. Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov has said sustained pressure on these supply routes could significantly affect Russia’s operational capacity in the region.

He said Crimea’s transport and supply network plays a key role in supporting Russian forces across occupied southern Ukraine. Ongoing strikes on logistics infrastructure are intended to reduce the flow of fuel, equipment, and military supplies into frontline areas.

Analysts say Ukraine’s expanding strike capability is increasing pressure on Russian rear-area infrastructure, forcing adjustments to logistics networks and creating persistent disruption across occupied southern territories.

Ukraine boosted electricity exports by 150% in June 2025 compared to the previous month, reaching over 237,000 megawatt-hours (MWh), according to consulting firm ExPro Electricity.

Current export volumes have returned to autumn 2022 levels, before Russia launched systematic attacks against Ukraine's energy infrastructure that caused massive blackouts across the country.

This marks Ukraine's return to exporting more electricity than it imports for the first time since October 2023, ExPro analysis reports.

Electricity cannot be stored in large volumes for long periods, so it can be exported during certain hours when there is surplus in Ukraine’s energy system, and imported during deficit hours.

Hungary imported the majority of Ukrainian exports, with shipments jumping from 34,000 to 122,000 MWh in a single month.

The recovery represents a dramatic turnaround from June 2024, when Ukraine had no exports at all and imported 858,000 MWh, four times more than in June 2025.

Russia continues to target Ukraine's energy infrastructure, with the latest strike hitting a critical energy facility in Kherson Oblast on June 27 that caused widespread blackouts across multiple communities.

Governor Oleksandr Prokudin warned residents to prepare for prolonged outages as power engineers work to restore electricity, saying "Russia decided to plunge Kherson Oblast into darkness."

In February 2025, Emergency energy power shutdowns were introduced in eight Ukrainian oblasts due to Russian attacks on the country's energy system.

‘With surgical precision’ — Ukrainian drones strike Russian plant 1,300 km away, SBU source says

The SBU said its long-range drones targeted the Kupol plant in Russia’s Udmurt Republic on the morning of July 1, resulting in at least two confirmed strikes and a fire at the site.

The Kyiv IndependentAnna Fratsyvir

Russian forces struck a critical energy facility in Kherson Oblast, causing widespread power outages across several communities, Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on June 27.

"Russia decided to plunge Kherson Oblast into darkness," Prokudin wrote on Telegram. He said the attack has disrupted electricity supply to multiple settlements.

Local power engineers are working to stabilize the situation, Prokudin said.

"I ask the residents of the region to prepare for a prolonged power outage. Power engineers are doing everything possible to stabilize the situation," he said.

Kherson and the surrounding regions have frequently come under Russian fire since Ukrainian forces liberated the city from occupation in November 2022. Russian troops continue to attack the area with artillery and drones from across the Dnipro River.

The Russian army consistently targeted Ukrainian energy infrastructure. Throughout 2024, Moscow launched 13 mass attacks with drones and missiles on Ukraine's energy infrastructure. Ukraine was forced to introduce emergency blackouts across the country.

Ukraine and Russia agreed to a partial 30-day energy truce, following consultations with the U.S. in Riyadh on March 25. Moscow violated the ceasefire more than 30 times, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi said on April 16.

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Ukrainian state grid operator Ukrenergo's supervisory board has appointed Vitaliy Zaichenko, the company's current chief dispatcher, as its new head, Ukrainian media reported on June 23.

The appointment comes after ten months of interim leadership following the controversial dismissal of former CEO Volodymyr Kudrytskyi in September 2024.

The company has been under temporary management of Oleksiy Brekht while the supervisory board struggled with prolonged disputes over the selection process.

Ukrenergo, which operates Ukraine's electricity transmission system and is a member of the European electricity grid network (ENTSO-E), plays a critical role in the country's energy security, especially during wartime when Russian attacks have repeatedly targeted energy infrastructure.

Zaichenko beat out two other finalists: Oleksiy Brekht, the interim head of Ukrenergo, and Ivan Yuryk, former acting head of Ukrainian Railways.

The supervisory board's June 4 attempt to elect a new CEO failed amid conflict with the Energy Ministry, which changed appointment rules without consulting the Energy Community Secretariat, drawing criticism from European partners.

The new rules complicated the selection process by requiring five out of seven supervisory board votes instead of the previous four needed to elect a chairman.

According to Ukrainian MP Max Khlapuk, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) threatened to block 141 million euros ($152 million) in funding and demand early repayment of 533 million euros ($574 million) already received over the rule changes.

Former Ukrenergo CEO Volodymyr Kudrytskyi was dismissed on Sept.2, 2024, after President Volodymyr Zelensky called for his resignation over alleged failures to protect substations from Russian missiles and drones.

Kudrytskyi disputed this account, saying he initiated the supervisory board meeting himself, though he did not reveal the reasons for his dismissal.

Following Kudrytskyi's dismissal, supervisory board chairman Daniel Dobbeni and member Peder Andersen resigned early, citing political pressure in personnel decisions.

Ukrainian energy giant to build $115 million solar program with British partner

Ukraine’s largest private energy company DTEK and British clean energy group Octopus Energy have launched a program to install rooftop solar panels and battery storage systems at Ukrainian businesses and public institutions, DTEK announced in a press release on June 23.

The Kyiv IndependentYana Prots

Ukraine's largest private energy company DTEK and British clean energy group Octopus Energy have launched a program to install rooftop solar panels and battery storage systems at Ukrainian businesses and public institutions, DTEK said in a press release on June 23.

The program, called RISE (Resilient Independent Solar Energy), was announced at Octopus Energy's Tech Summit in London and aims to raise 100 million euros ($115 million) to finance 100 energy projects over three years, helping stabilize the grid, lower electricity costs and protect customers from outages, the company said.

DTEK’s facilities have been repeatedly targeted since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion as Moscow sought to cripple Ukraine's energy infrastructure. The company was forced to shut down its gas production facilities in Poltava Oblast in March.

"About 70% of Ukraine's thermal generation capacity has been damaged, destroyed or seized since the full-scale invasion," said DTEK CEO Maksym Timchenko in the press release.

“This has created not only an urgent need to rebuild but also an opportunity to accelerate the shift to a decentralized, renewable energy system,” he added.

The alternative energy systems will be installed by D.Solutions, DTEK's business unit operating under the Yasno retail brand.

Installed equipment will run on Octopus Energy's AI-powered Kraken operating system, enabling businesses to optimize energy use in real time, reduce consumption during peak hours and sell surplus electricity back to the grid.

"They (DTEK) are rebuilding at pace and pioneering a decentralized, smart energy system powered by homegrown renewables," said Greg Jackson, Octopus Energy Group founder and CEO.

According to DTEK, Ukraine's commercial and industrial energy market has an untapped potential of 300 megawatts annually, valued at 200 million euros ($229 million). DTEK's Yasno brand serves over 60,000 business customers and can generate projects worth 30 million euros per year.

DTEK previously announced plans to build one of Europe's largest energy storage facilities with six installations across the country, totaling 200 megawatts to power 600,000 households. The company secured a $72 million loan from three Ukrainian banks.

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The Kyiv IndependentKollen Post

President Volodymyr Zelensky on June 15 condemned Russia's latest mass attack against Ukraine, calling the strikes on energy infrastructure "a spit in the face of everything the international community is trying to do to stop this war."

Earlier in the day, Russia targeted the city of Kremenchuk in Poltava Oblast with a combined missile and drone attack, damaging energy and agricultural facilities. The strike involved nearly 200 drones and missiles, including both cruise and ballistic missiles. The attack came shortly after a phone call between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In his nightly address, Zelensky said the attack on Kremenchuk was "deliberately and treacherously planned to target our civilian infrastructure" and that Russia intended to damage energy facilities.

"This is Russia's spit in the face of everything the international community is trying to do to stop this war," Zelensky said in his nightly address.

"It happened right after Putin's conversation with Trump. After the Americans asked us not to strike Russian energy facilities. At the same time as Putin tries to portray himself as a mediator for the Middle East ... The level of cynicism is staggering."

Following his call with Putin, Trump claimed he would be "open" to the Russian president acting as a mediator in the rapidly escalating conflict between Israel and Iran. Zelensky rejected the idea of Putin — who has waged war against Ukraine for over 10 years and has taken no steps towards a lasting ceasefire — playing the role of peacemaker.

Putin "is war itself," Zelensky said, urging the international community not to fall for "Russian manipulation and lies."

Zelensky also warned that Russia may be planning additional attacks on Ukraine's energy sector, including nuclear power infrastructure. According to the president, Ukrainian intelligence agencies have obtained evidence of Russia's threat and shared the information with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Trump administration.

"Russia is planning further attacks on our energy sector — attacks that may be less visible to the world right now because all eyes are on the situation in the Middle East," he said.

Throughout the full-scale war, Russia has attempted to disrupt Ukraine's power grid through targeted attacks on energy infrastructure. After rejecting a U.S. proposal for a 30-day unconditional ceasefire in March, Moscow instead agreed to a month-long ceasefire on energy attacks.

Russia subsequently violated the partial ceasefire, which ended in in April. The Kremlin continues to refuse calls for an unconditional truce.

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The U.S. has not announced any military aid packages for Ukraine in almost five months, pushing Kyiv to seek new alternatives. But time is running out quickly as Russian troops slowly advance on the eastern front line and gear up for a new summer offensive. “While Ukraine’s dependence on

The Kyiv IndependentKateryna Hodunova