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Behind the front each side is trying to break the other's economy. Russia bombs Ukraine's power plants, substations and gas fields, hardest before each winter. Ukraine sends drones a thousand kilometres into Russia to burn refineries, fuel depots and export terminals. The largest nuclear plant in Europe sits on the front line in Russian hands.
The wider war, its history and each side's full account: Russia's war in Ukraine.
On 14 September the American president announced that both sides had agreed to stop striking energy sites; a day later Ukraine hit another Russian refinery and Russia struck Ukrainian power and rail targets. Washington has pressed Kyiv to spare Russia's diesel refineries, blaming the strikes for fuel prices at home. The Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant was cut off from the grid for more than a week at the end of August. A Russian-owned refinery in Romania has filed for insolvency.
What may be struck. Russia says Ukraine's energy system powers its arms factories and railways and is a lawful target. Ukraine says the aim is to freeze civilians into surrender. Ukraine says Russia's refineries pay for and fuel the invasion; Russia calls the raids terrorism. Both are hitting what keeps the other's war running and what keeps its people warm, and the two are the same installations. A third party has a stake as well: the world's fuel buyers, and an American government that wants lower prices more than it wants Russian refineries burned.
Russia has destroyed most of Ukraine's power stations and tries each autumn to leave cities without heat or light. That is a war on civilians. Ukraine strikes the oil industry that fills Russia's war chest, which sanctions failed to touch, and it is working: refineries are burning and Russians queue for petrol. It will stop when Russia does.
Russia strikes the energy and transport that supply Ukraine's army, with precision weapons. Ukraine attacks refineries, ports and civilian industry deep in Russia with Western drones, intelligence and targeting, and shells the nuclear plant Russia protects. Those who sabotaged the Nord Stream pipelines have shown what they are capable of.
Kyiv's leaves out that its campaign raises fuel prices for the allies it depends on, that some strikes have hit civilian sites, and the evidence that a Ukrainian group blew up Nord Stream.
Moscow's leaves out that it began the war on infrastructure in October 2022 and times it to winter, that it occupies the nuclear plant and has militarised it, and the hospitals and homes left without power.
Names and terms the sides do not share. This page keeps them out of its own voice.
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