Since 2022, Russia has targeted Ukraine’s critical infrastructure with increasing intensity and diversification.
Over the past four years, attacks on energy infrastructure have become a deliberate tool to disrupt daily life and the Ukrainian economy. Attacks occur in coordinated waves designed to overwhelm air defence, and targets have diversified beyond electricity to gas production and storage, district heating, water infrastructure, electrified transport and railway facilities.
In response, Ukraine has developed a layered approach to protecting energy infrastructure.
Alongside establishing passive protection as the minimum planning standard, this paper recommends six further areas of action.
1. Protection of critical infrastructure should be recognised as an eligible reconstruction and energy investment cost, with support prioritised towards the most critical assets.
2. Resolution No. 1506 should be translated into a clear step-by-step operational guide.
3. A streamlined licensing pathway should be established for qualified private air-defence providers, while training and certification capacity should be expanded.
4. Dedicated intergovernmental financing mechanisms should support the protection of state-owned energy operators rather than transferring these costs to consumers through regulated tariffs.
5. Develop further the community-level model involving energy operators, VFTCs and hromadas
Guarding the Grid Private Air Defence for Ukraine’s Energy Sector