Hundreds of Thousands Without Power After Russian Drone Strikes on Ukraine's Grid
Russia launched 433 drones overnight, killing one person and injuring at least 47, as Moscow pressed its campaign against Ukraine's energy infrastructure ahead of winter.
Russian attacks across Ukraine killed one person and injured at least 47 over the past day, regional authorities said Sunday, as Moscow launched a massive overnight drone barrage against the country's energy infrastructure.
Ukraine's Air Force said it downed 371 of the 433 drones launched overnight, including jet-powered Shahed attack drones. Russian drones struck 16 locations, and debris fell across 14 areas.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said hundreds of thousands of families remained without electricity Sunday, and he urged allies to move faster on promised air defense systems. The strikes injured three workers for DTEK, Ukraine's largest private energy company, which introduced emergency power outages in Kyiv.
The casualties were spread across the country: 17 people were injured in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, including three children; one person was killed in Sloviansk in Donetsk Oblast, where eight others were hurt; and 12 were injured in Sumy Oblast, where officials said air raid sirens sounded for nearly 24 hours straight. Injuries were also reported in Kharkiv, Poltava, Volyn and Kyiv oblasts.
Russia has targeted Ukraine's power grid each winter since 2022, seeking to break public morale by cutting heat and electricity during the coldest months. Ukrainian officials say this year's campaign began early, with energy infrastructure hit in at least four regions overnight.
(Featured image: a Kyiv street during power blackouts in November 2022. File photo.)