One million Ukrainians are without power after the Russian missile attack

(UPDATES) From 11:00 am according to the AFU Air Forcethe Armed Forces of Ukraine registered 188 air targets. Russian forces launched three S-300 anti-aircraft guided missiles, 57 Kh-101 cruise missiles, 28 Kalibr cruise missiles, three Kh-59/69 air-to-surface guided missiles and 97 Shahed attack drones, along with other unidentified drones in Ukraine.

Ukrainian air defense forces shot down 76 X-101/Kalibr cruise missiles, three Kh-59/69 guided air missiles and 35 drones. In addition, according to the Ukrainian military, 62 drones are reported as “locatively lost.”

(UPDATES) As of 10 a.m., regional authorities said the combined missile and drone attack, launched in waves in the early hours of Thursday, knocked out electricity to more than a million subscribers in western Ukraine, hundreds of miles from the front lines.

“Currently, 523,000 subscribers in the Lviv region are without electricity,” said regional head Maksym Kozytskyi.help on social media.

According to Sudpilne681 villages in the Rivne region are without electricity, and almost 10 have no water. Educational institutions have switched to distance learning.

In the Volyn region, 215,000 people are without power due to damage to critical infrastructure. The Khmelnytsky region is experiencing partial power outages.

In Mykolaiv, schools are closed, alarm systems do not work and electric transport runs on shortened routes. Zhytomyr faces both power outages and water supply problems.

Russian forces launched a large-scale attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure using missiles and drones early in the morning of Thursday, November 28. The attacks targeted power stations across the country, Ukrenergo forcethe national energy manager, to implement emergency power outages.

Since Russia’s invasion in February 2022, Ukraine’s energy network has been frequently targeted, with Kiev accusing Moscow of using “terror tactics” to plunge cities into darkness and deny citizens heating during the winter months.

“There are emergency power outages all over the country due to the enemy attack on our power sector. There is no end in sight,” said CEO of Yasno energy supplier Sergey Kovalenko.

Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko confirmed this the strikes were intended to disrupt Ukraine’s power supply during winter.

At about 5 a.m., the air force reported a series of Russian cruise missiles heading to cities across the country, including Kiev and western regions such as Lviv, Khmelnytskyi and Ivano-Frankivsk.

The strikes caused widespread disruption across Ukraine, affects multiple regions and crippling vital infrastructure.

In Kiev, debris from explosions fell in open areas, while in Kharkiv, a civilian enterprise was targeted in the Kievskyi district.

In the Sumy region, Shostka saw serious damage to a school, hospital, high-rise buildings and water supplies.

Vinnytsia and the Odessa region reported damage to private residential properties. Explosions were also heard in the Zhytomyr, Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk regions.

In Rivne, heavy smoke followed a series of explosions, leaving more than 280,000 residents without power and disrupting water supplies.

In Volyns Lutsk, power outages brought electric transport to a standstill, and in Mykolaiv, power outages forced schools, trams and trolleybuses to close. The attacks have left many areas without power and water supplies as the country prepares for winter.

In the western Lviv region, the electricity grid was also severely damaged.

“I don’t expect good news about electricity – everything makes sense,” wrote Nikolaevskyi Vaniok, the largest monitoring Telegram channel in Ukraine.

Andrii Yermak, head of the Ukrainian Presidential Office, described the attacks as a “terror tactic,” accusing Russia of stockpiling missiles and receiving support from allies such as North Korea.

“They are being helped by their crazy allies, especially from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Now the Russians are launching a combined attack on the country. They fight with children. Ukraine has the means to respond,” Yermak wrote on his Telegram channel.

Russia said this earlier this week it prepared its own retaliation for Ukrainian attacks on its territory using US-supplied weapons ATACMS rockets.

Ukraine has carried out at least three missile attacks on Russian border areas after receiving permission from the White House to target Russian territory.

In response to the first strike Moscow launched a hypersonic ballistic missile in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, a weapon never seen before.

In a heated speech, the Russian president said Vladimir Putin warned that the missile, which can carry nuclear warheads, could be used against Western countries if they allow Ukraine to use their weapons to attack Russia.