Russia launched a heavy overnight assault on Ukraine, firing a barrage of drones and missiles that targeted power substations supplying two nuclear plants and left seven people dead, Ukrainian officials reported on Saturday.
“Russia once again targeted substations that power the Khmelnytskyi and Rivne nuclear power plants,” Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on X. “These were not accidental but well-planned strikes. Russia is deliberately endangering nuclear safety in Europe.”
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy stated that Russia deployed more than 450 drones and 45 missiles.
In the city of Dnipro, a drone strike on an apartment building killed three people and injured 12, while three more were killed in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region and another in Kharkiv farther north, according to regional authorities.
The attacks damaged energy facilities in Kyiv, Poltava, and Kharkiv, leaving thousands without electricity and water, Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said. Poltava officials reported that generators were used to maintain water supply.
Russia’s Defence Ministry claimed responsibility for the strikes, describing them as “a massive strike with high-precision long-range air, ground and sea-based weapons” targeting weapon production as well as gas and energy infrastructure in retaliation for Kyiv’s attacks on Russian territory.
Energy Minister Svitlana Hrynchuk said emergency crews had stabilized the power grid but cautioned that further power cuts were necessary to complete repairs.
“We are assessing the aftermath and coordinating what actions to take in order to find alternative power sources to ensure people get their power and heating back,” she said on national television.
Despite these efforts, reports and social media posts indicated ongoing blackouts in at least two regions, Kharkiv in the northeast and Poltava in central Ukraine.
State-owned Tsentrenergo described the attacks as the largest against its facilities since Russia’s invasion in February 2022, forcing a halt to operations at plants in Kyiv and Kharkiv.
“The last strike was not even a month ago and the enemy has now struck all our generating capacity at the same time. The stations are on fire!” the company said. “Our generation is now zero.”
Zelenskiy called for stronger sanctions in response. “For every Moscow strike on energy infrastructure, aimed at harming ordinary people before winter, there must be a sanctions response targeting all Russian energy, with no exceptions,” he said on Telegram.
Sybiha also demanded an urgent meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s board of governors and urged China and India to pressure Russia to stop attacks that could trigger “a catastrophic incident.”
Since the war began, Russia has repeatedly targeted Ukraine’s power sector as the need for heating rises, striking gas facilities nine times in two months, according to Naftogaz.
Meanwhile, Russian forces claimed advances around Pokrovsk and Kupiansk and captured a small village in eastern Ukraine. Kyiv has responded with long-range strikes on Russian oil refineries, depots, and logistics hubs, which it describes as legitimate acts of self-defense.
The Ukrainian air force reported shooting down 406 Russian drones and nine missiles overnight, while 26 missiles and 52 drones struck 25 locations.
