Russian strikes on the power system in Ukraine's eastern Dnipropetrovsk region left 600,000 people without electricity on November 8, as Moscow continued its campaign against the country's energy infrastructure.
Oleksandr Hanzha, the regional military chief, said hospitals were forced to switch to diesel generators and electric-powered public transport ground to a halt in the city of Dnipro. "Power company workers are already working to restore power. Their efforts are being hampered by constant Russian shelling," he wrote in a statement on social media.
The attacks came a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of seeking to apply maximum pressure ahead of trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi in the coming days by plunging "the entire country into a blackout."
Speaking on November 8, Zelenskyy said there were "widespread power outages across the country." He added: "In the Zhytomyr region alone, 140 apartment buildings were left without heating following a Russian strike."
Russia began stepping up attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure in late September and has targeted the sector every winter since launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. In October, RFE/RL obtained from the Ukrainian armed forces a detailed Russian document setting out a blueprint for this year's campaign, aimed at power generation and supply, water supply, sewage systems, and heating.
Ukraine's armed forces reported that Russia attacked overnight with three Kh-59/69 guided aircraft missiles launched from the Sea of Azov and 164 strike drones, 112 of which were jet-powered. The military said 137 of the drones were intercepted.
Ukrainian authorities said a drone strike on a private residence in a Dnipro suburb caused a fire, while another strike in the city killed one civilian and injured another. Four people were injured in the Poltava region as a result of Russian attacks.
Russia's Defense Ministry claimed its forces hit an electricity substation "which supplied electricity to Ukrainian defense industry enterprises," as well as a container ship in the Black Sea that it said was "delivering weapons."
In Russia's Kursk region, which borders Ukraine, authorities said a 40-year-old man was killed when a tractor was hit in a drone strike. Battlefield claims could not be independently verified.
