Ukrainian Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal showed European partners in Paris a document that he calls an intercepted Russian plan for strikes on the country’s energy system, The New York Times reports. The newspaper obtained a copy of the material and reported on it, citing two interlocutors familiar with the presentation. The presentation took place about two weeks ago. The publication could not independently confirm the authenticity of the document, dated August and written in Russian.
According to the document, the campaign envisions the use of up to 1,000 missiles, drones and bombs against substations, hydroelectric power plants, thermal power plants and boiler houses. In total, according to the calculations of the plan’s authors, it is intended to disable almost 15 gigawatts of generating capacity, as much as Ukraine had at the end of summer. In August, Shmyhal said in parliament that available capacity was about 15 gigawatts and by the end of the year should grow to more than 21.
The plan allegedly consists of three stages. In the first, strikes hit substations near the western borders, through which Ukraine imports electricity from Europe; in the second — hydroelectric power plants; in the third — three operating Ukrainian nuclear power plants. The stations, according to the document, are to be stopped by missile strikes on the open switchgear that connects them to the power grid. The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant is not included in this list: it is under Russian control and is not operating.
Kiev, Kharkiv and Odessa are named as the main targets: electricity supply there is planned to be cut by 90%, heat supply — by up to 90%, and the operation of the sewage system seriously disrupted. In addition, the document envisions strikes on the water supply system: dozens of ballistic missiles and guided bombs against pumping stations and treatment facilities. According to the NYT, Russia had not previously carried out such large-scale strikes on these targets.
As already reported, on September 30 Russia carried out the most massive strike on the country’s energy sector since 2025. After it, emergency outages were introduced in Kiev, and on the morning of October 1, Ukrenergo canceled the schedules, but in five regions people were left without power.
The scale of the previous campaign is known only from UN data: from October 2025 to March 2026, Russian troops carried out at least 423 strikes on electricity production, transmission and distribution facilities and at least 74 strikes on thermal power plants and other heat supply facilities.
