Russia launched 13 drone and missile strikes on facilities belonging to Ukraine’s state energy company Naftogaz Group in a single week, forcing some gas extraction wells offline and causing serious damage to production capacity, the company reported on 17 August.
The barrages hit assets across several regions, with one site struck multiple times. No employees were injured, but Naftogaz said the cumulative damage to equipment and output was significant. The company now counts 293 total strikes on its facilities since the start of 2026, more than double the pace of comparable periods from last winter, well before the heating season begins.
Systematic Campaign Against Gas Production
Acting Naftogaz CEO Serhii Fedorenko has said the strikes are intended to inflict maximum damage on Ukraine’s infrastructure ahead of the winter heating season. During the first seven months of 2026, Russian attacks destroyed 37 sites in Naftogaz’s network, including 32 Ukrnafta filling stations and five Ukrhazvydobuvannia gas extraction complexes. Across the group, 312 workers have been killed since the full-scale invasion began in 2022.
The escalation represents a shift in Russia’s targeting strategy. Previous winter campaigns focused primarily on the electricity grid. Then-Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal said last winter’s attacks damaged or destroyed roughly 80 percent of Ukraine’s power generation capacity. Across 2025, Russia hit energy sites more than 600 times, damaging all 15 of the country’s thermal power plants. But that campaign failed to collapse the grid entirely, prompting Moscow to broaden its approach.
Water Systems Also Under Threat
Heading into the coming winter, Russia is now eyeing Ukraine’s water systems alongside gas production as critical targets. Russia’s Defense Ministry has publicly threatened to freeze Ukraine this winter, while the country received roughly three times fewer air-defense missiles in the first half of 2026 than in the same period a year earlier.
Naftogaz’s largest single strike on gas production infrastructure came in October 2025, when Russia fired 35 missiles and 60 drones at facilities in the Kharkiv and Poltava regions. The August barrage follows the pattern of intensifying attacks as temperatures begin to drop, with each season bringing heavier strikes than the last.
Ukraine is responding with its own deep-strike campaign, targeting Russian refineries and military plants with domestically produced and British-supplied drones. But the asymmetry remains stark: while Ukraine’s strikes have disrupted some Russian fuel supplies, Moscow’s systematic campaign against Ukrainian energy infrastructure threatens millions of civilians with another winter of cold homes, rationed power, and compromised water supplies.
Sources: Euromaidan Press; AP News via Reporter Herald; Naftogaz official Telegram channel
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