Record numbers of attacks on energy infrastructure in Ukraine in the past two months have forced school closures and also disrupted the remote learning that children have relied upon for nearly four years of war, said Save the Children
Teacher Larysa* with her empty classroom, now that power outages have forced children at her school to stop their in-person lessons completely. Photo by Anastasiia Zahoskina/Save the Children
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KYIV, 21 November 2025 – Record numbers of attacks on energy infrastructure in Ukraine in the past two months have forced school closures and also disrupted the remote learning that children have relied upon for nearly four years of war, said Save the Children.
New data showed that October saw the highest number of attacks on energy infrastructure since the start of the war. Independent conflict monitor ACLED said there was 177 recorded incidents in October after 113 in September, making them the two worst months since February 2022.
Children and families are now facing another winter with repeated and prolonged gas and electricity blackouts, cutting off access to remote learning and leaving families with the prospect of little to no way to heat their homes, wash themselves and their clothes, or cook hot meals in a country that sees lows of minus 20 degrees C.
The recent attacks has mean t that in some areas, schools that were operating a mixed system of in-person and remote lessons have moved completely to remote learning after attacks left them without any power.
Larysa* is a teacher in a school supported by Save the Children in Dnipro region [1], which suffered the highest number of attacks on energy infrastructure in the country over the past three months [2]. Like many schools, it has had to adapt to frequent power outages caused by attacks on critical infrastructure. The school has a generator, but it can only supply electricity to the shelter where children go when there are air-raid sirens and is not powerful enough to cover the entire building.
Recently, the power outages have become worse and have also disrupted the water supply, forcing the school to abandon in-person lessons altogether - the first time since the war began in spring 2022.
Larysa* said: “In this neighbourhood […], there used to be almost no outages. But this past week, since Monday [10 November], the electricity has been going off here, sometimes for up to 12 hours.
“Right now, we also don’t have water. Today is Wednesday, the third day without water, so the children are learning remotely. Electricity might go on and off, but without water we can’t host so many children at school. So we hold distance learning.”
But with these attacks also harming electricity and internet connection at home, many children are cut off from education completely. At Larysa*’s school, sometimes only two out of 25 students are able to connect to their lessons.
This is also an issue elsewhere in Ukraine, like Chernihiv, where children say they are spending as long as seven hours in a row without electricity.
Maryna*, 13, said: “I connect to my online lessons at 8 am. And then usually at 11 am the electricity is turned off, for example. And I can’t reconnect, because I don't have internet. And all my classmates are drop off and they write down the reasons: we have no electricity; we have no electricity.”
With nearly four years of war putting many schools out of action, nearly a fifth of Ukraine’s children – 930,000 – are no longer able to have full-time, in-person education [3].
Sonia Khush, Country Director for Save the Children in Ukraine, said:
“When there is war, it’s death, destruction and displacement that make headlines. But what often gets overlooked is the drudgery of the daily domestic impacts for ordinary people that build up like water dripping on a stone.
“Imagine the irritation of having your wet clothes stagnating in the washing machine for 12 hours. Now imagine that happening time and again, whenever you try to wash your clothes. Meanwhile your heating doesn’t work, you cannot use the stove, the oven or microwave. Nor can you make a cup of tea. You could wear another jumper but they’re all stuck in that washing machine. It’s a cruel cycle of cold and damp and families in Ukraine have had four years of this.
“Living in Ukraine has become relentless and exhausting, and now more and more children are without the distraction and routine of learning or communicating with friends. Already at the start of the year, almost a fifth of children had their schooling disrupted. These attacks are shattering learning opportunities for yet more children.”
Save the Children has been working in Ukraine since 2014 and has scaled up operations since the war escalated in February 2022 and now has a team of about 250 staff based in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Sumy, Mykolaiv, Dnipro, and Chernivtsi. Working with more than 25 partners, the organisation has provided support to more than 4.2 million people, including around 1.6 million children.
Education is a major focus for Save the Children in Ukraine, and the aid group supports children to continue to learn both in-person and remotely through a combination of catch-up lessons, the creation of classrooms in shelters, repairing schools and kindergartens, and establishing Digital Learning Centres across Ukraine, providing safe access to learning and play. Save the Children provides psychosocial support and activities including Mine Risk Education, structured play, teacher well-being sessions, and recreational programs that reduce stress and help children process trauma. It also provides schools and kindergartens with adaptive equipment for children with disabilities and special educational needs, as well as laptops and digital tools.
ENDS
Notes to editor
Save the Children analysed ACLED data on conflict events in Ukraine where civilian infrastructure in energy, health, education, or housing was targeted and/or damaged. Attacks on energy infrastructure, according to ACLED broadly cover the sectors of electricity, oil, natural gas, nuclear energy, coal, and hydroelectricity. Events that are noted as leading to a ‘power outage’ as the result of an attack, even if there is no specific report on damage to energy infostructure are included. We counted events where any energy infrastructure was among that targeted/ damaged even if other infrastructure such as schools, homes and medical facilities were also targeted or damaged.
[1] Save the Children and partner Globa22 supported the school with establishing a Safe School Committee that identified risks in school. Following the Committee’s analysis, Save the Children contributed to structural repairs for this school.
[2] According to ACLED, Dnipro had the highest number of attacks on energy infrastructure over the past three months.
[3] Ministry of Education of Ukraine https://lookerstudio.google.com/reporting/6c10cd85-b49c-4586-b6a0-d91e28656ff0/page/p_vc9vh9xzjd
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