Russian strikes leave 600,000 without power in eastern Ukraine

Russian attacks on Ukraine's power grid on Saturday left more than 600,000 people without electricity in the Dnipropetrovsk region in southeast Ukraine, electricity provider DTEK said on social media.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday morning denounced "an overnight attack on the Dnipro region" that left energy infrastructure damages, also pointing out wider attacks across the country.

"There are widespread power outages across the country…Repair work is underway in virtually every affected city and community," Zelenskyy said.

"Power company workers are already working to restore electricity. Their efforts are being hampered by constant Russian shelling," said the region's governor Oleksandr Hanzha, adding that hospitals and critical infrastructure are now relying on generators for power.

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant also lost power overnight, with the International Atomic Energy Agency saying on Sunday morning it is now relying "on emergency diesel generators for reactor cooling and other essential nuclear safety and security functions."

The blackout follows shelling in the region on Nov. 3 that damaged infrastructure in a key industrial region bordering active combat areas, and a wider attack the same day across Ukraine targeting energy facilities.

The attack comes as Kyiv and Moscow gear up for another round of US-brokered peace talks in Abu Dhabi next week. Following the new wave of attacks on Saturday night Zelenskyy called on international partners to ramp up sanctions on Russia to hamper its capability to acquire or build more missiles.

"It is very important that they be synchronized across Europe and G7 jurisdictions. If the world does not have enough anti-ballistic capabilities to protect Ukrainian skies, then the missiles must be stopped on the production lines," he said.

Ukrainian armed forces reported on November 8 that Russia had attacked overnight with three Kh-59/69 guided aircraft missiles from the Sea of Azov and 164 strike UAVs, 112 of which were jet-powered. They said 137 drones had been intercepted. But a drone strike on a private residence in a Dnipro suburb caused a fire, while another strike in the city killed one civilian and injured another, Ukrainian authorities said. Four people were injured in the Poltava region due to Russian attacks.

Russia's Defense Ministry claimed to have hit an electricity substation "which supplied electricity to Ukrainian defense industry enterprises" and a container ship in the Black Sea "delivering weapons." Authorities in Russia's Kursk region, which borders Ukraine, said a 40-year-old man was killed when a tractor was hit in a drone strike. Battlefield claims could not be independently verified.

One person was killed as a result of another attack by Russian forces on Odesa on November 7. Damage to the city's infrastructure was also reported.

Ukraine is facing a potentially tough winter, with Russia expected to keep up its bombardment of energy facilities, deploying ballistic missiles alongside cheaper drones. The lack of interceptors for the US-made Patriot air defense systems remains a serious issue for the authorities in Kyiv, who have issued repeated appeals to allies to donate weapons amid a global shortage.

Sources

This article was drafted with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Company claims are reported as claims. Cover image is AI-generated.