Russia hits Ukraine's power grid in 10 regions
Emergency outages hit Kyiv and six more regions, and Ukraine's Energy Ministry says the attack is still under way in some areas.
Russia launched a large-scale attack on Ukraine's power grid overnight and into Tuesday morning, Ukraine's Energy Ministry said on its official Telegram channel. The targets were power plants, transmission and distribution substations and combined heat and power stations.
Ten regions reported damage: Vinnytsia, Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, Zhytomyr, Rivne, Odesa, Chernihiv, Chernivtsi, Khmelnytskyi and Kharkiv. The ministry named Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr and Kharkiv as the hardest hit.
Emergency outages were imposed in Kyiv and in the Kyiv, Poltava, Sumy, Chernihiv, Cherkasy and Kharkiv regions because of the damage and the drop in grid voltage. Most regions also have consumption limits with scheduled blackouts. Repair crews are working where it is safe. The ministry gave no total for customers without power.
More than 20 attacks hit energy facilities in the past day, it said.
It is the latest wave of strikes on the grid this fall by Russia, which invaded Ukraine in February 2022. In its October tally, the same ministry said it had restored service to about 10 million customers hit by attacks, and on Oct. 29 it announced power was returning in Konotop, with rolling outages. With winter close, every damaged plant or substation cuts into the grid's ability to keep heating and water running.
Russia has not given its account of the damage. Delegations from both countries are due in Abu Dhabi on Nov. 10 and 11 for talks mediated by the United States, a week after this attack.
