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What the 25 December 2024 strikes did to Ukraine's grid
Summary
A retrospective on a Christmas Day wave of Russian missile and drone attacks on energy infrastructure.
What did a day of Russian strikes on Ukraine's energy system look like on 25 December 2024? According to reports at the time, a series of ballistic missile and drone attacks hit critical energy infrastructure in cities across the country.
The human toll was reported as at least two people killed and 20 others injured. The strikes also caused widespread emergency blackouts, cutting power at the height of winter.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin over the attacks, calling them "inhumane" in his response to the strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure.
Part of a wider pattern
The attacks belonged to a broader campaign. Winter assaults on district heating and electricity during the Russo-Ukrainian war had produced energy crises in Ukraine, and the Christmas Day strikes fell within that pattern of attacks on the power system.
The emergency blackouts showed how directly such strikes reached daily life: when generation and network assets are hit, outages spread beyond the cities where the missiles and drones landed.
