Ukraine's Worst Energy Strike of the Year Lands Days After an Evacuation Truce Ends: Blackouts in 10 Regions, 31 Dead at a Village Shelter

Russia carried out its largest attack of the year on Ukraine's energy system on Nov. 3, hitting substations, transmission lines and power plants across 10 oblasts and cutting power to households across the country, according to Ukrainian officials quoted by the Kyiv Independent. Over the same 24 hours, regional authorities reported at least 38 people killed and more than 150 injured across Ukraine.

The scale of the attack

Russia launched 289 drones, 17 ballistic missiles and 59 cruise missiles, Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal said. Ukraine's Air Force said it shot down three ballistic missiles, 49 cruise missiles and 257 drones, and that the ballistic missiles included Iskander-M, North Korean KN-23 and Zircon types, the Kyiv Independent reported.

Vitalii Zaichenko, chief executive of the state grid operator Ukrenergo, told the Kyiv Independent the attack included one of the largest waves of ballistic missiles aimed at critical infrastructure. The Energy Ministry said Russia struck energy facilities more than 20 times in a single day.

Shmyhal said Russia sent three drones toward a substation critical to the stable operation of the Khmelnytskyi Nuclear Power Plant. "Such actions pose a threat not only to Ukraine but also to the nuclear safety of all of Europe," he said, adding that he had informed the International Atomic Energy Agency.

DTEK, the country's largest private energy company, said the strikes halted generation at three of its thermal power plants and damaged grid infrastructure in Odesa Oblast. "It is clear Russia is dangerously escalating its efforts to deny Ukrainians critical services like energy this winter. We will not let them succeed," chief executive Maxim Timchenko said.

"Emergency and rolling blackouts continue in many cities and communities," President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Telegram, listing energy targets in Odesa, Cherkasy, Zhytomyr, Vinnytsia, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Chernivtsi, Chernihiv and Rivne oblasts. "We must help Ukraine defend its skies; otherwise, Russia will never stop its missile strikes," he said.

Komyshuvakha

The deadliest single attack came on Nov. 2 in Komyshuvakha, a village about 30 kilometers southeast of Zaporizhzhia and about 20 kilometers from the front line. Acting regional governor Mykhailo Semikin said aerial bombs killed at least 31 people and that 48 remained missing.

Zelensky said the first wave hit the village in the morning, including a school where humanitarian aid was regularly distributed, and that Russia then dropped nine more bombs on a shelter where people were hiding. He said the follow-up strike used a FAB-3000, a three-ton bomb containing "nearly one and a half metric tons of explosives." "After a direct hit, the concrete structure of the underground center collapsed," Semikin said. The State Emergency Service said two rescue workers and four police officers were among the dead.

Dnipro and Kharkiv

A morning missile attack on Dnipro killed two people and injured 20, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Governor Oleksandr Hanzha said. Dnipro Mayor Borys Filatov said a hospice had been destroyed and about 50 terminally ill patients, the oldest 90, were moved to another hospital. He said the hospice was one of the few places providing such care to elderly residents and to people displaced from occupied areas.

In Kharkiv, an aerial bomb struck a medical facility around 3 a.m. on Nov. 3, and the regional prosecutor's office said 73 people were affected, including people with what it called "an acute stress reaction." Mayor Ihor Terekhov said more than 1,000 windows were damaged and about 200 patients would be evacuated.

After the Oleshky truce

The attacks followed a localized ceasefire that ran from 3 a.m. on Oct. 27 to 11 p.m. on Nov. 1 and allowed civilians to leave Russian-occupied Oleshky in Kherson Oblast, according to the Kyiv Independent. The White House said representatives of Ukraine and Russia would join first lady Melania Trump, who was credited with helping broker the truce, for remarks on the operation on Nov. 5.

What comes next

Ukraine is bracing for another winter energy crisis after the 2025-2026 winter left millions without heat and power in subzero temperatures, the Kyiv Independent reported. Russia has not commented on the specific strikes described by Ukrainian officials in the reports reviewed. Casualty counts may rise as searches continue in Komyshuvakha.

Elsewhere over the same day, Donetsk Oblast Governor Vadym Filashkin reported four people killed and six injured, Kherson Oblast Governor Oleksandr Prokudin reported seven injured, and Sumy authorities reported a 63-year-old man killed, according to the Kyiv Independent.