Russian Strikes Leave Hundreds of Thousands Without Power in Ukraine as Kyiv Orders Emergency Outages

Russian strikes on Ukraine’s energy grid left hundreds of thousands of families without power on Sunday, 1 November, as Ukraine power outages spread across several regions and Kyiv introduced emergency power cuts, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

FAKTA

• President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia struck energy infrastructure in four regions overnight: Dnipropetrovsk, Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr and Khmelnytskyi.
• Substations, transformers and power lines supplying homes were hit, and repair teams were working across the affected areas.
• Ukraine’s air force said it shot down 371 of 433 long-range drones launched by Russia since Saturday evening.
• Regional authorities reported one person killed and at least 47 injured in Russian attacks over the past day.
• Energy company DTEK introduced emergency power outages in Kyiv and said its workers were restoring damaged equipment when it was safe to do so.

Ukraine power outages hit four regions

Zelenskyy said Russian forces targeted the substations, transformers and power lines that deliver electricity to people’s homes. “As of now, hundreds of thousands of families remain without power,” he said, adding that repair teams were working everywhere.

He also said the intensity of the strikes was very high and that Russia was seeking to exploit a shortage of ballistic-missile interceptors. Ukraine says it supports a full ceasefire on energy targets, including its own battered power grid, but that Moscow is unwilling to agree to it.

The overnight barrage came as a six-day local ceasefire held on its final day around the Russian-controlled town of Oleshky, even as long-range air attacks continued elsewhere along the front line.

Kyiv under emergency outages

In Kyiv, DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy company, introduced emergency power outages on 1 November, suspending rolling outage schedules as the electricity supply situation worsened. “Energy workers are working to restore damaged equipment, when it is safe to do so,” DTEK said on social media.

Kyiv had already suffered damage to its power supply from a repeated Russian strike on a thermal power plant on 30 October, which left parts of several districts without electricity. Ukraine’s air force said six separate drone alerts had been issued in Kyiv since midnight, with dozens of Russian drones still in the air on Sunday morning.

Outages were also reported in other regions, including Cherkasy, Donetsk, Sumy, Kharkiv, Poltava, Volyn, Lviv, Rivne and Kirovohrad, according to regional authorities.

Casualties reported across Ukraine

Regional authorities reported that Russian attacks over the past day killed one person and injured at least 47. One person was killed in Sloviansk in Donetsk region, and eight more were injured across that region, its governor said.

Seventeen people were injured in Dnipropetrovsk region, including three children, and 12 were injured in Sumy region, where air-raid sirens sounded for almost the entire day. Seven people were injured in Kharkiv region, including a 16-year-old girl, and a 14-year-old was injured in Poltava region. Three DTEK workers were also injured, according to the reports.

Strikes in both directions

Ukraine’s air force said it shot down 371 of 433 long-range drones launched by Russia since Saturday evening, including jet-powered Shahed attack drones, with drones striking 16 locations and debris falling in 14 areas.

Zelenskyy said Ukraine had also hit the Kamensky plant in Russia’s Rostov region, which he said was involved in manufacturing missiles. Moscow did not comment on that reported attack.

In Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod region, Governor Gleb Nikitin said a large-scale overnight Ukrainian drone attack caused “significant damage” to an industrial facility, which he did not identify. The regional government said it was taking steps to ensure petrol stations were supplied with fuel and urged motorists to buy fuel only as needed and avoid panic buying. Russia’s Defence Ministry said its forces had downed 235 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions overnight.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, who oversees the energy sector, said in an interview on Sunday that Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries were adding to global fuel-market imbalances and affecting prices, but did not mention the Nizhny Novgorod strike.

For more coverage from the region, see Watan News’ Europe section.