Russia has launched its biggest attack on Ukraine’s energy system this year, killing at least 38 people in a single day and leaving the capital Kyiv without power and running water.
Ukrainian officials said 17 ballistic missiles, 59 cruise missiles and 289 attack drones were fired overnight, hitting power stations and substations in nine regions from Odesa on the Black Sea to Chernihiv in the north.
In Dnipro, a morning missile strike killed two people and injured 20, tearing through a hospital and a medical centre and damaging 20 blocks of flats. In Kharkiv, a 3am bombing raid struck the passageway between two hospital wings, with prosecutors saying 73 people were hurt or treated for shock.
Kyiv in the dark
Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the capital and its surrounding region were facing emergency blackouts and water cuts as engineers scrambled to restore supply before winter bites.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said the barrage was deliberately timed to coincide with today’s US midterm elections, and warned that his intelligence services expect another “massive attack” on the country’s energy and logistics networks in the coming days.
Aid centre bombed
The blitz came just a day after a Russian air strike on a school being used as an aid hub in the frontline town of Komyshuvakha, in the Zaporizhzhia region, killed 31 people, among them four police officers and two rescue workers. Zelensky branded that attack “vile” and said it proved Moscow had no interest in de-escalation.
Peace talks next week
Despite the bloodshed, Washington has announced a new round of three-way talks between the United States, Russia and Ukraine on November 10 and 11. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio struck a cautious note, saying he did not know whether a negotiated peace was achievable.
Russia’s defence ministry said it shot down 212 Ukrainian drones overnight, and the governor of the Samara region reported an attack on the area, which is home to major oil refineries that Kyiv has repeatedly targeted.
Developing story. Connemara Journal will update as more details emerge.
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