At least six people have been killed and dozens more injured after a large overnight wave of Russian drone and missile strikes hit energy infrastructure and residential areas across Ukraine, Ukrainian officials said. The strikes damaged power facilities in several regions and tore through apartment blocks in cities including Dnipro and Zaporizhzhia.
Ukrainian authorities and multiple international outlets reported that a drone struck an apartment building in Dnipro, killing residents and injuring others; regional officials also reported fatalities in Zaporizhzhia and other areas as rescuers searched rubble and treated the wounded. Local emergency services said that dozens of locations — including homes, hospitals and energy plants — were hit.
Kyiv described the assault as one of the largest Russian attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure since the 2022 invasion. Ukrainian officials said hundreds of unmanned aerial vehicles and scores of missiles were used in the barrage — figures that Kyiv and some international reporters put at roughly 450 drones and 45 missiles — though most were intercepted by air defences. The strikes caused blackouts and forced the use of emergency generators in some cities.
State energy firms and regional authorities reported damage to substations and power plants in multiple oblasts, prompting rolling outages as crews worked to restore supplies ahead of winter. Officials warned that repeated hits to the grid risked longer, more disruptive blackouts for heating and water systems if attacks continue.
Moscow said its operations were targeting military and energy sites it said supported Ukraine’s war effort; Russia’s defence ministry framed the strikes as strikes on military-command and energy infrastructure. Kyiv and Western governments denounced the attacks as deliberate assaults on civilian infrastructure and called for tougher sanctions and more air-defence help for Ukraine.
The strikes came amid reciprocal cross-border strikes and intensifying exchanges targeting energy facilities on both sides — including earlier Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian oil and refinery infrastructure — contributing to an escalation that Kyiv says is aimed at degrading its ability to heat and power cities this winter. Western leaders continue to debate additional measures and military support as Ukraine presses for more air-defence systems.
Humanitarian and emergency teams in affected cities said search-and-rescue and medical operations continued into the morning, while investigators began documenting damage and compiling casualty lists. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged renewed international pressure on Russia and additional sanctions targeted at Moscow’s energy sector.
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