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Ukrainian capital plunged into darkness by ‘massive’ Russian attack
Kyiv was plunged into darkness early on Friday by what the air force called a “massive attack”, as Russia pummelled the capital’s infrastructure, cutting off water and energy supplies and triggering a fire in a high-rise apartment building, Reuters reports.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia used over 450 drones and 30 missiles in a country-wide attack targeting the energy sector.
He reported power outages across nine regions and stressed the need for partners’ support with air defence systems and sanctions enforcement.
A general view shows a residential building damaged during massive Russian drone and missile strikes in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on 10 October 2025, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Photograph: Genya Savilov/AFP/Getty Images
In the south-eastern city of Zaporizhzhia, drones and missiles damaged 12 apartment buildings, killing a seven-year-old boy and injuring four people, the regional governor said.
Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said 12 people had been injured, with eight of them taken to hospital. He said power cuts and disruptions to the water supply had hit districts on the east bank of the Dnipro river that runs through the city.
Pictures posted online showed apartments ablaze as firefighters moved into position. Fragments from downed drones also struck several parts of the city.
“The capital of the country is under an enemy ballistic missile attack and a massive attack by the enemy strike drones,” the Ukrainian air force said, urging people in Kyiv to remain in shelters.
The energy minister, Svitlana Grynchuk, said Russian forces were “inflicting a massive strike” on the grid.
“Energy experts are taking all necessary measures to minimise negative consequences,” she said on Facebook.
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Kyiv was plunged into darkness early on Friday by what the air force called a “massive attack”, as Russia pummelled the capital’s infrastructure, cutting off water and energy supplies and triggering a fire in a high-rise apartment building.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia used over 450 drones and 30 missiles in a country-wide attack targeting the energy sector.
He reported power outages across nine regions and stressed the need for partners’ support with air defence systems and sanctions enforcement.
In the south-eastern city of Zaporizhzhia, drones and missiles damaged 12 apartment buildings, killing a seven-year-old boy and injuring four people, the regional governor said.
Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said 12 people had been injured, with eight of them taken to hospital. He said power cuts and disruptions to the water supply had hit districts on the east bank of the Dnipro river that runs through the city.
Pictures posted online showed apartments ablaze as firefighters moved into position. Fragments from downed drones also struck several parts of the city.
“The capital of the country is under an enemy ballistic missile attack and a massive attack by the enemy strike drones,” the Ukrainian air force said, urging people in Kyiv to remain in shelters.
The energy minister, Svitlana Grynchuk, said Russian forces were “inflicting a massive strike” on the grid.
“Energy experts are taking all necessary measures to minimise negative consequences,” she said on Facebook.
In other developments:
Twenty-three Ukrainian children and adolescents have been brought out of Russian-occupied areas of the country to territory under Kyiv’s control, president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s chief of staff said on Thursday. Andriy Yermak, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said the rescue was carried out under the president’s “Bring Kids Back UA” programme aimed at bringing to safe areas children deported to Russia or confined to Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine.
The UN’s nuclear watchdog said on Thursday the process had started to restore external power to the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in south-eastern Ukraine, cut off from the electricity grid for more than two weeks. Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said the process had begun after consultation with authorities in Ukraine and Russia, who blame each other for the downing of the external lines.
Russia accused Ukraine on Thursday of rupturing a now defunct pipeline used to transport Russian ammonia into Ukraine for export, releasing toxic gas into the air. The incident took place near the frontline village of Rusin Yar in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, Russia said.
French president Emmanuel Macron will convene a meeting of France’s mainstream political parties on Friday ahead of a self-imposed deadline to name a new prime minister, as the country’s central bank chief warned the political crisis was curbing growth. Macron is searching for his sixth prime minister in under two years and will need to find a personality whose appeal spans the centre-right to centre-left in order to steer a budget through a fragmented and fractured parliament.
Police in Belgium have arrested three young adults suspected of plotting a jihadist-inspired attack using drone-mounted explosives, with the Belgian prime minister reported to be among the politicians targeted. The arrests were made in the northern city of Antwerp as part of an investigation into “attempted terrorist murder and participation in the activities of a terrorist group”, the federal prosecutor Ann Fransen told a news conference.
A man has been found guilty on appeal of raping Gisèle Pelicot after she was drugged unconscious by her husband – and has had his prison sentence increased to 10 years. Husamettin Dogan, 44, an unemployed builder, who had contested his first conviction last year, faced a retrial this week at Nîmes court of appeal.
US president Donald Trump suggested on Thursday the Nato alliance should weigh throwing Spain out of its membership ranks over a dispute about the western European nation’s lagging military spending. Members of the U.S.-backed security alliance agreed in June to sharply increase their military spending to 5% of gross domestic product, delivering on a major priority for Trump, who wants Europeans to spend more on their own defense.
Sweden will invest 3.5bn Swedish crowns ($367.11m) in more anti-drone systems, its defence minister said on Friday, citing a growing threat posed by aerial violations. A wave of drone sightings has rattled European aviation, sparking concerns about hybrid attacks potentially targeting Ukraine’s allies in Europe, though Russia has denied involvement.