Overnight Russian strikes on Ukraine's energy infrastructure left more than 850,000 people without electricity, Ukrainian authorities said on Sunday, as Moscow intensifies its campaign against the country's power grid ahead of winter.
Ukraine's largest private energy company, DTEK, described the assault as a "massive attack" on the energy sector, with key facilities in the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region targeted. The company said over 600,000 residents in the Pavlohrad, Samar, Kamianske and Dnipro districts, as well as in the city of Dnipro itself, were left without power. Authorities later said electricity was being gradually restored.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reported widespread outages across the country, including in Kharkiv Oblast in the northeast and Zhytomyr region in the northwest, where he said 140 apartment buildings had lost heating following a strike. Local officials in Kharkiv said around 250,000 customers had been affected, though power had since been restored.
Renewed attacks on energy grid
Russia has stepped up attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure in recent weeks, exploiting Kyiv's shortage of interceptor missiles as it seeks to break Ukrainian resistance. Over the past week, Zelenskyy said Russian forces had launched 115 missiles, almost 1,900 guided aerial bombs, and more than 3,000 attack drones against Ukraine.
The strikes come as European allies debate how to bolster Ukraine's air defences. Finland's defence minister has accused the United States of stalling Patriot missile deliveries, while the EU has struggled to bar Russian soldiers from Schengen entry. The renewed attacks also follow earlier strikes on Kyiv region that damaged energy infrastructure.
Drone attack on Komyshuvakha rescue site
On Sunday morning, Zelenskyy said Russia had launched a drone strike on the site of a recent attack on Komyshuvakha, where rescuers had been carrying out search operations following a bombing that killed at least 55 people on Monday. "Unfortunately, more people may still be under the rubble. Absolute cynicism and brutality," he wrote on X.
Ukraine's State Emergency Service said Russia had "deliberately attacked" emergency service workers at the site, but no one was injured. The Monday strikes, which hit a school Kyiv said was used for humanitarian purposes, followed a rare localised truce that had allowed evacuees to leave the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky in the southern Kherson region.
In a separate incident, one person was killed and three others injured in a strike on a residential area of Dnipro on Sunday, according to Oleksandr Hanzha, head of the regional military administration. "A fire has broken out. At least one private house has been destroyed. It is believed that people may be trapped under the rubble," he said.
The attacks underline the urgent need for continued European support for Ukraine's energy resilience. As winter approaches, the humanitarian impact of these strikes is likely to deepen, with millions potentially facing prolonged blackouts and heating shortages. European leaders have condemned the attacks, but the question of how to provide effective air defence and energy aid remains a pressing challenge for the continent.
