Russian forces attacked six major electrical substations in Ukraine overnight into Wednesday, Ukrainian Prime Minister Serhii Koretskyi said, in a fresh assault on the country's energy grid as winter approaches. At least 14 people were injured in the overnight attacks.
The six substations were hit in four regions — Vinnytsia, Kirovohrad, Zhytomyr and Cherkasy — Koretskyi said in a post on Telegram. Power transmission lines of various voltage levels were also damaged in the Kirovohrad and Rivne regions. In the central city of Kryvyi Rih, Russian forces struck a district heating facility, disrupting heat supplies to residential buildings. Emergency repair crews are working to restore heating in the city.
The strikes extended beyond energy infrastructure. Railways were hit in the Dnipropetrovsk and Zhytomyr regions, a school building was damaged by an aerial bomb in the Kherson region, and five apartment buildings were damaged in Kharkiv. "As of this moment, at least 14 people are known to have been injured. They are receiving the necessary medical care," Koretskyi wrote.
Ukraine's national grid operator Ukrenergo reported partial outages affecting consumers in eight regions, including Dnipropetrovsk, Zhytomyr, Zaporizhzhia, Kyiv, Rivne, Kharkiv, Odesa and Chernihiv. Ukrainian energy company Naftogaz said Russian jet drones had hit one of its facilities in the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, causing a fire and damaging equipment. Emergency power cuts were also imposed in several districts of Odesa.
The attacks came as Russian, Ukrainian and U.S. officials began a second day of peace talks in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday, with each side accusing the other of launching attacks overnight despite the negotiations. Russia's defence ministry said its forces had struck a cargo vessel in the Black Sea southwest of the Ukrainian port of Odesa that it said was carrying weapons and military equipment for Ukraine. Reuters said it could not verify the reports. Drone debris killed two people after hitting an apartment building in Russia's Smolensk region, the TASS news agency reported, citing the regional governor.
The assault follows a pattern of Russian strikes on Ukraine's power grid. On October 28, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia hit 28 substations in a single night. On November 7, Russian forces launched 172 drones and 36 ballistic missiles, all aimed at Kyiv and the surrounding region, in an assault that damaged high-voltage substations connecting the Rivne and Khmelnytskyi nuclear power plants to the capital and central Ukraine.
