Russia launched a massive overnight attack on Ukraine’s power system, leaving many cities with emergency blackouts. Both governments said power plants and substations were among the targets.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy put the barrage at 289 attack drones, 17 ballistic missiles and 59 cruise missiles in a post on X. Energy was the main target, he wrote. He listed nine regions: Odesa, Cherkasy, Zhytomyr, Vinnytsia, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Chernivtsi, Chernihiv and Rivne.
Emergency outages were ongoing in many cities and communities, he said.
In Kharkiv, Zelenskyy said, Russia struck a city clinical hospital directly. Seventy-three people were hurt. The hospital’s cardiology department, where patients were being treated, was also damaged.
Moscow’s account
Russia’s Defense Ministry said it used precision weapons fired from land and air, plus long-range attack drones. Among its targets, the ministry said in a statement carried by the Russian news agency TASS, were energy sites in the Vinnytsia, Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv regions that powered Ukraine’s defense plants and army.
The biggest on its list was the 2,800-megawatt Kryvyi Rih thermal power plant in the Dnipropetrovsk region. The ministry also named the region’s 1,765-megawatt Prydniprovska plant and the 1,800-megawatt Ladyzhyn plant in the Vinnytsia region.
In the Kharkiv region, it said, Russian forces hit a Kharkiv thermal plant rated at 86 megawatts. Two 330-kilovolt substations, Zmiiv and Losevo, were struck too.
Port infrastructure at Kiliia in the Odesa region was struck, the ministry said. It added that two bulk carriers were hit in the port of Pivdennyi and in the Black Sea, claiming they carried military and dual-use cargo for Ukraine’s army.
Neither side’s claims could be independently verified.
Outages across Ukraine
Most communities in the Vinnytsia region lost power, the regional council said. In the Zhytomyr region, about 130 localities were left without electricity, said Vitaliy Bunechko, head of the regional military administration. The State Emergency Service reported fires at two vital infrastructure sites there.
Kharkiv’s city council said hot water and heating were cut after explosions. Electric public transport was later halted amid the blackout, TASS reported.
In Dnipro, Mayor Borys Filatov said a blast damaged a thermal power plant in the city’s Samarskyi district. Oleksandr Hanzha, head of the regional administration, reported damage to critical infrastructure in Dnipro and the Kryvyi Rih district but didn’t say what was hit.
Energy company DTEK reported emergency blackouts in and around Kyiv and in the Dnipropetrovsk region, without giving a cause. The Ukrainian news agency UNIAN reported voltage surges in Kyiv and said other cities were also affected.
The Ukrainian outlet Insider reported that four thermal power plants and several substations were damaged. It said substations were hit in the Vinnytsia, Dnipropetrovsk, Zhytomyr, Kyiv and Chernivtsi regions. The Sumy region’s grid operator, Sumyoblenergo, also announced emergency power cuts.
Death toll rises in Zaporizhzhia region
Separately, the death toll in Komyshuvakha, in the Zaporizhzhia region, has risen to 29, Zelenskyy said, blaming Russia. Five people were injured, and others remain under the rubble.
Rescuers have been working there since Monday. Zelenskyy said the operation continues as far as security allows, citing the threat of repeat Russian strikes on the same site.
Zelenskyy points to US elections
Zelenskyy noted the attack came on the day of the U.S. congressional elections. Russia, he wrote, believes America won’t notice its signal, but “such terror must be noticed and stopped.”
He urged help for Ukraine’s air defenses, saying Russia would otherwise never stop its missile strikes. At the time of his post, the air raid alert was still in effect, with the threat of new missile and drone attacks.
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