Ukraine's energy sector under fire and under investigation

What did Ukraine's energy sector look like on 17 February 2026? It was under pressure from two directions at once: Russian attacks on people and infrastructure, and an anti-corruption case that had reached a former minister only two days earlier.

Attacks on energy workers and Sumy Oblast

On 17 February 2026, a Russian drone struck a vehicle in Mykolaivka, in Donetsk Oblast. Three engineers from the Sloviansk Thermal Power Plant were killed and another was injured. The attack fell within the wider pattern of Russian strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure.

The same day, large-scale Russian strikes hit Sumy Oblast. At least six people were injured, and buildings and vehicles were damaged.

The Galushchenko arrest

On 15 February 2026, Ukraine's National Anti-Corruption Bureau arrested former energy minister German Galushchenko at the state border. He is accused of involvement in a ₴4 billion (about US$100 million) kickback scheme in the energy sector. The case is part of Operation Midas. As reported at the time, he was detained while trying to leave Ukraine by train.

Background on the investigation shows it was launched in 2024 and is run by the bureau together with the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office. It concerns large-scale bribery in the energy sector during the war. The data-collection phase lasted 15 months and involved more than 70 searches, the seizure of 4 million US dollars and about 1,000 hours of recorded conversations.

The other side of the border

The energy theme ran both ways. On 15 February 2026, authorities in several Russian oblasts, including Belgorod and Bryansk, reported widespread power outages after a large-scale Ukrainian missile and drone attack on Russian power stations. Bryansk Oblast governor Alexander Bogomaz confirmed that the city of Bryansk had lost most of its electricity and heat supply.

What the juxtaposition shows

Taken together, these reports show energy as a central front of the war. Workers at a power plant were killed on the road in Donetsk Oblast, while the country's own anti-corruption bodies pursued allegations of kickbacks in the same sector. The two stories are separate: nothing in the reports links the drone attack to the Midas case. Yet they were in the news in the same days, and both concern the same system that Ukrainians depend on for power and heat.

For international readers, the lesson is that Ukraine was fighting a war against infrastructure while also trying to show it could police its own institutions. The arrest of a former minister at the border was a visible act of enforcement. The deaths of the three engineers were a reminder of the human cost borne by those who keep the system running.