Ukraine reports deaths and damage to energy infrastructure after Russian attack

Ukraine is reporting explosions in a number of places across the country following a large-scale Russian air attack this morning. Ukrainian energy company DTEK said its thermal power plants had suffered serious damage. Energy workers are carrying out emergency power cuts, while the total death toll has reached nine, according to Ukrainian authorities, AFP reported.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia had launched around 120 missiles of various types and 90 drones at Ukraine overnight. Air defences managed to destroy around 140 aerial targets, he said. One of Russia’s largest attacks of the war was aimed primarily at Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, causing damage that has not yet been quantified.

The attack killed nine people in total and injured around 20, AFP reported. In Mykolaiv in the south of the country, two people were killed in a drone attack and seven others, including two children, were injured, emergency services said. One woman was killed and two people injured in Lviv Oblast, while two people were killed in Odesa and a 17-year-old boy was injured. A woman was killed in a drone attack in Kherson, according to local authorities.

State railway company Ukrzaliznytsia said that two railway workers were killed and three others injured in a Russian strike on a depot in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. It also reported train delays on some sections of the network due to power outages.

Authorities in Volyn and Zaporizhzhia oblasts also reported unspecified damage to energy and critical infrastructure. Explosions also rocked the Black Sea port of Odesa, according to Reuters. Explosions were also reported in Rivne in western Ukraine and Kryvyi Rih in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.

This time, the attack also reached Zakarpattia Oblast, on the borders with Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania, which had otherwise been almost entirely spared Russian air strikes until now. Debris from enemy drones and missiles fell in forests in the Mukachevo and Rakhiv districts, the military administration in Zakarpattia said.

According to grid operator Ukrenergo, this was the tenth major attack on Ukraine’s energy grid since the start of the year. DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy company, said its thermal power plants had once again been targeted by a Russian attack. It said the strike had caused „serious damage“ to the plants’ equipment.

Ukrenergo, the operator of Ukraine’s electricity grid, carried out emergency power cuts in Kyiv and Kyiv, Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts, according to a statement by DTEK. Partial outages were also announced in Odesa. Technicians have already begun repairs, and the gradual restoration of supplies began this afternoon.

According to media reports, Ukrainians had been nervously awaiting another major Russian missile attack for months, fearing it could deal a blow to the country’s already damaged energy system. Winter is approaching, and there are fears of further prolonged energy supply outages, like those the country has experienced in the past as a result of Russian attacks.

On the Russian side, a local journalist was killed by a Ukrainian drone, according to Kursk Region Governor Alexei Smirnov. Ukrainian troops entered Kursk Region in August and still control a small part of it. In neighbouring Belgorod Region, which also borders Ukraine, a civilian was killed when struck by a Ukrainian drone, according to Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.

Ukraine has been defending itself against large-scale Russian military aggression since February 2022, when Moscow launched an invasion of its neighbour.