Massive overnight Russian air strikes targeting Ukraine's energy sector left more than 850,000 people across the country without electricity, as Moscow intensifies attacks on critical infrastructure ahead of winter.
Ukrainian private energy producer DTEK reported that Russian forces carried out a heavy assault on key facilities in the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region. According to the company, the disruption affected over 600,000 residents in the city of Dnipro and the surrounding districts of Pavlohrad, Samar, Kamianske, and Dnipro. Local authorities later stated that power restoration efforts were underway and electricity was gradually being brought back online.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed that the blackouts stretched across multiple regions nationwide, including Kharkiv Oblast in the northeast and the Zhytomyr region in the northwest. In Zhytomyr, a Russian strike damaged heating systems, leaving 140 apartment buildings without heat. Local officials in Kharkiv noted that approximately 250,000 customers were temporarily plunged into darkness before power was fully restored.
The latest strikes come as Moscow exploits Ukraine's shortage of air defense interceptor missiles to target the national energy grid ahead of colder weather. Zelenskyy disclosed that over the past week alone, Russian forces launched 115 missiles, nearly 1,900 guided aerial bombs, and more than 3,000 attack drones across Ukraine.
Additional violence was reported on Sunday in the city of Dnipro, where a strike on a residential area killed one person and wounded three others. Oleksandr Hanzha, head of the regional military administration, said at least one private house was destroyed and a fire broke out, adding that people were believed to be trapped under the debris.
Zelenskyy also reported a Russian drone strike on Sunday morning targeting the site of a prior attack in Komyshuvakha. Rescuers were actively searching the rubble following a Monday bombing on a school building used for humanitarian purposes, which killed at least 55 people. Ukraine's State Emergency Service stated that Russian forces deliberately targeted emergency personnel at the search site, though no rescue workers were injured in the follow-up strike. "Unfortunately, more people may still be under the rubble. Absolute cynicism and brutality," Zelenskyy wrote on X.
The earlier Monday strike on Komyshuvakha had occurred shortly after a rare localized ceasefire between Kyiv and Moscow ended, which had allowed civilians to evacuate the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky in the southern Kherson region. Zelenskyy accused Moscow of intentionally escalating strikes across the country to exert leverage over Ukraine's negotiating position ahead of upcoming trilateral discussions involving Kyiv, Moscow, and Washington in Abu Dhabi.
