Major Russian strikes cut power in Kyiv and across Ukraine
Overnight Russian missile and drone strikes have caused power cuts in large parts of Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and eight other regions. Kyiv’s authorities said power was later restored to more than 540,000 consumers in the city – but many households are still without electricity.
Twelve people were injured in the city, said Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko. In the southern Zaporizhzhia region, a seven-year-old boy was killed and seven others injured. Ten people were also injured in the central Cherkasy region.
Russia’s defence ministry said its “massive” strike with high-precision weapons – including hypersonic missiles – targeted energy facilities used by Ukraine’s “military-industrial complex”.
Russia – which launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 – has escalated attacks on Ukrainian energy facilities as well as transport infrastructure as winter approaches.
Reacting to the latest Russian strikes, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reiterated calls for allies to act decisively to “defend people from this terror”.
“What’s needed is not empty words but decisive action – from the United States, Europe and the G7 – in delivering air defence systems and enforcing sanctions,” he wrote.
Zelensky said that more than 450 drones and over 30 missiles targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, describing such attacks as “cynical and calculated” and against “everything that sustains normal life” as temperatures become colder.
More than 5,800 residential buildings in Kyiv were without electricity on Friday morning, local officials said. The city’s eastern districts were the worst hit.
Images of firefighters putting out blazes at a 10-storey building have been released by Ukraine’s state emergency services.
Residents in more than 7,000 buildings were left for hours without water – but the supplies were restored in the evening, the authorities said.
Public transport – including the capital’s widely used underground system – was also badly affected, with some stations forced to close after the Russian strikes.
So-called “invincibility” tents – where people can get hot water and charge their gadgets – have been set up on the streets of Kyiv and other cities.
Ukraine’s Energy Minister Svitlana Hrynchuk said Russia was “inflicting a massive strike” and repair crews were working to restore power.
“Exactly three years ago – to the day – on 10 October, our power system experienced one of the first massive attacks. Today, Russia continues to use cold and darkness as a tool of terror,” she said.
Ukrainian officials said they were forced to roll out emergency power outages in Kyiv and the capital region, as well as in the Sumy, Kharkiv, Poltava, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kirovohrad and Zaporizhzhia regions.
Five killed in large Russian missile and drone attack, Zelensky says
Five people have died and tens of thousands have been left without power in Ukraine after intense Russian missile and drone attacks overnight, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said. Four members of one family, including a 15-year-old girl, were killed by a strike in the village of Lapaivka as attacks mostly targeted the western region of Lviv.
One person also died in Zaporizhzhia. Zelensky said Russia fired more than 50 missiles and around 500 attack drones. Ukraine’s air force put the combined figure at 549. Russia’s defence ministry said it had successfully carried out a “massive” strike on Ukrainian military and infrastructure targets.
The Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Kherson, Odesa, and Kirovohrad regions were also targeted, according to Zelensky. He added: “We need more protection and faster implementation of all defense agreements, especially on air defense, to deprive this aerial terror of any meaning. “A unilateral ceasefire in the skies is possible – and it is precisely that which could open the way to real diplomacy.”
Russia continues to focus its attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure as winter approaches.
Kyiv’s energy ministry said overnight attacks caused damage in Chernihiv, Sumy and Zaporizhzhia. In the latter, Russia’s overnight attack left “more than 73,000 consumers… without electricity” after a power plant was struck, according to Ivan Fedorov, the regional head.
A woman was killed and several others injured in Zaporizhzhia. A 16-year-old girl was among those receiving medical assistance, Fedorov added, posting photos apparently showing a partly destroyed multi-storey block and a burnt-out car from the site of the attack. Emergency outages were implemented in Chernihiv and Sumy, the energy ministry added. Lviv’s mayor Andriy Sadovyi said part of the city – 70 km (43 miles) from the border with Poland – had no power, adding that city’s air defence systems were engaged heavily in repelling first a drone and then a Russian missile attack.
Ukraine’s air force said it recorded direct hits by eight Russian missiles and 57 drones at 20 locations across the country, as well as fragments from downed arms at six locations. It said 478 missiles and drones were downed and six did not reach their targets. On the ground, Russian forces have occupied most of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, including Luhansk and Donetsk, since the start of its invasion.
Russia currently controls around a fifth of Ukrainian territory, including the Crimean peninsula it annexed in 2014. The Russian assaults came days after a US official said the US would support Ukraine launching strikes deep inside Russian territory.
When asked about US President Donald Trump’s position on the matter, US Special Envoy to Ukraine Keith Kellogg told Fox News: “The answer is yes, use the ability to hit deep, there are no such things as sanctuaries.” Ukraine has repeatedly attacked targets inside Russia, but has been limited by the range of the weapons it has been supplied.
It has recently been stepping up strikes on Russian oil refineries, leading to petrol shortages in parts of the country. In Russia, air defence units destroyed 32 Ukrainian drones overnight, the state-owned news agency RIA reported on Sunday, citing data from Russia’s defence ministry.
