KYIV, November 8 (Aalimi Nation) – Russian overnight strikes on Ukraine's energy system left hundreds of thousands of people without electricity on Sunday, Ukrainian officials said, as Kyiv and its allies prepared for US-brokered talks in Abu Dhabi.
The power company DTEK said more than 600,000 residents of the Dnipropetrovsk region lost electricity after a night attack damaged important energy facilities. It added that repairs were being complicated by repeated attacks. Oleksandr Hanzha, the regional military chief, said hospitals had switched to diesel generators and electric public transport had stopped in Dnipro, adding that crews were being hampered by constant shelling.
Outages in Kharkiv and beyond
In the Kharkiv region, Mykola Baksheyev, the mayor of Zlatopil, said a Russian drone hit a critical infrastructure facility, leaving nearly 250,000 customers without power. He said no casualties had been reported and that it was not yet known when supply would be restored.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the overnight strikes caused widespread power outages across the country. In the Zhytomyr region alone, he said, a Russian strike left 140 apartment buildings without heating, with temperatures hovering around freezing. Ukraine's energy ministry said a large attack the previous day had cut supply in five regions and significantly hampered electricity transmission in Kyiv.
According to Ukraine's armed forces, Russia launched three guided missiles from the Sea of Azov and 164 strike drones overnight, 112 of them jet-powered. Ukrainian air defences said they intercepted 137 drones. The military said a drone strike on a private home in a Dnipro suburb started a fire, while another strike in Dnipro killed one civilian and injured another. Four people were injured in the Poltava region.
Moscow's account
Russia's Defence Ministry said it had struck an electricity substation that supplied power to Ukrainian defence industry enterprises. It also said it had hit a container ship in the Black Sea that it claimed was delivering weapons. Authorities in Russia's Kursk region said a 40-year-old man was killed when a drone struck a tractor. Battlefield claims from either side could not be independently verified.
Talks and the wider campaign
The attacks come ahead of US-brokered Russia-Ukraine talks in Abu Dhabi, reported to be scheduled for November 10 and 11 and described as the first major diplomatic meeting since February. Zelenskyy had earlier accused Moscow of applying "maximum pressure" before the talks by plunging the country into blackout. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said in a radio interview on Sunday that "France will certainly be there," though he had not yet named the French representative. European allies had not previously been expected to attend.
President Donald Trump has said a "big, beautiful agreement" could be close and might involve "all of Europe." The Kremlin has previously said its security concerns about European countries are an obstacle to a diplomatic settlement.
Russia has targeted Ukraine's power grid in every winter since its full-scale invasion in 2022, and Ukrainian officials say it stepped up attacks on energy infrastructure from late September. Ukraine is bracing for another harsh winter, with strikes aimed at power generation and supply as well as water, sewage and heating systems, according to a Russian military document obtained by Ukraine's armed forces in October.
