Russian strikes on Ukraine's energy sector cause outages in 12 regions
Russian attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure left parts of 12 regions without electricity, with the worst damage reported in Kyiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions. Ukraine recorded 128 targeted attacks on energy and oil-and-gas infrastructure over the previous week, resulting in 219 incidents of damage or destruction.
Key points
- Power outages were reported in 12 regions, including Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa and Kharkiv
- Russia carried out 128 targeted attacks on energy and oil-and-gas infrastructure over the past week
- A total of 219 incidents damaged or destroyed energy and oil-and-gas facilities
- Kyiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions faced the most severe electricity supply disruptions
- Hourly outage schedules applied across most regions, while industry faced power-capacity restrictions
- Three Ukrenergo workers were injured in a drone attack in Sumy region
- Repairs continued despite air-raid alerts and changing security conditions
Why it matters
The attacks disrupted electricity supply for households and industry across much of Ukraine during the heating season. Damage affected power generation, transmission and distribution, including infrastructure important to the stable operation of Khmelnytskyi Nuclear Power Plant. Emergency outages, scheduled blackouts and industrial restrictions increased the operational burden on affected regions, while the injury of three Ukrenergo workers highlighted risks to repair personnel.
What happened
Russian forces continued to attack energy facilities in several Ukrainian regions. By the morning of November 9, parts of Vinnytsia, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Zhytomyr, Zaporizhzhia, Kyiv, Odesa, Poltava, Rivne, Kharkiv, Khmelnytskyi and Chernihiv regions were without electricity. Kyiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions experienced the most serious disruptions because of substantial damage to energy infrastructure. Emergency blackouts were introduced in Kharkiv, Sumy and Poltava regions, while other regions used hourly schedules of 1.5 to four outage rounds, amounting to between four and more than 12 hours without electricity per day. Repair teams continued restoring damaged equipment, although air-raid alerts and security conditions made the work more difficult.
How Ukrainian sources describe it
Ukrainian reporting focused on the geographic scale of the outages and the extensive damage to generating, transmission and distribution infrastructure. Coverage also highlighted emergency and scheduled disconnections, restrictions on industrial electricity consumption, air-raid alerts affecting repairs, injuries to energy workers in Sumy region and reduced generation capacity following strikes on infrastructure important to Khmelnytskyi Nuclear Power Plant.
Background
Russian forces began a campaign against Ukraine's energy infrastructure in late September 2026, shortly before the heating season. The November 3 attack was described as one of the largest Russian strikes on the country's energy system, targeting power plants and transmission and distribution substations. Three drones were directed at a substation critical to the stable operation of Khmelnytskyi Nuclear Power Plant, and generation capacity was reduced on November 4. After early-November strikes on high-voltage substations around Kyiv, an estimated 80–85% of residents lost electricity. At the time of reporting, Kyiv depended on the transmission network and had no new generating capacity to replace thermal power stations damaged the previous year.