Missile event in Belgorod Thermal Power Plant area, Russian Federation on Fri 15th May 2026

On the morning of May 15, the Ukrainian Defense Forces reportedly carried out a missile strike on a thermal power plant in the Russian city of Belgorod.

The local Pepel Telegram channel reported explosions near the facility. Following the strike, residents in several parts of the city experienced disruptions to the water supply.

Regional authorities later confirmed that an infrastructure facility had been damaged, but did not specify which site was hit or what its function was.

Meanwhile, a monitoring channel stated that the target was the Belgorod thermal power plant and shared photos showing smoke rising over the area.

After missile and drone alerts were issued at around 5 a.m. in Belgorod and the surrounding region, eyewitnesses reported intense activity by Russian air defense systems.

The Belgorod thermal power plant currently supplies heat to the northern and central districts of the city, covering more than 36% of Belgorod’s total heating demand.

The facility has an installed electrical capacity of 60 MW and a thermal capacity of 360.4 Gcal/h. Its average annual electricity generation is about 395.6 million kWh.

This was not the first strike on the Belgorod thermal power plant. The facility was previously attacked in January this year, and it was also targeted multiple times in 2025.

A month earlier, on April 16, drones attacked the Yuzhnaya electrical substation in Belgorod. The strike caused a fire at the facility, which was witnessed by local residents.

Other energy infrastructure facilities in the Russian city have also come under attack.

For example, a Ukrainian missile strike on the night of February 18 disabled the Michurinskaya gas turbine thermal power plant operated by the company GT Energo.