Ukraine Reports Overnight Russian Aerial Assault

UKRAINE – Ukraine late Saturday reported a large-scale overnight Russian aerial assault on critical infrastructure using 447 missiles and drones.

In a statement on Telegram, the air force said the attack began at 7 pm local time (1700GMT) and involved air, ground and sea-launched missiles alongside strike unmanned aerial vehicles.

Air defenses, the statement said, shot down or suppressed 406 aerial targets, including 24 missiles and 382 drones of various types.

According to preliminary data, 13 missiles and 21 strike UAVs struck 19 locations, while debris from downed drones fell at three other sites.

The main directions of the attack were Ukraine’s western regions of Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Rivne and Vinnytsia, the statement said.

Russian Strikes Hit Power Grid

Ukraine’s national power grid operator Ukrenergo said on Saturday that a massive Russian missile and drone strike targeted energy infrastructure in eight regions, forcing all nuclear power plants (NPPs) in Kyiv-controlled territory to significantly reduce their output.

“As a result of missile strikes on key high-voltage substations that ensured the output of nuclear power units, all NPPs in the controlled territory were forced to be unloaded,” Ukrenergo said in a statement.

The damage, it added, led to a substantial power deficit in the national grid, resulting in the implementation of emergency blackouts and an increase in the duration of scheduled hourly outages.

Repair work has commenced in areas where the security situation allows, with priority given to restoring electricity to critical infrastructure.

Ukrenergo urged citizens to limit the use of energy-intensive appliances once power returns to avoid overloading the fragile system.

Earlier, Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal said power substations and 750 kV and 330 kV overhead lines, which he described as the basis of the country’s power grid, were under attack.

He said the strikes also hit the Burshtyn and Dobrotvir thermal power plants in western Ukraine, and that staff at power plant units unloaded the capacity.

He added that Ukrenergo also requested emergency assistance from neighboring Poland.

Private energy provider DTEK also reported strikes on its thermal power stations in various regions, resulting in “significant” damage.