Russia launched another massive aerial bombardment of Ukraine overnight between Friday and Saturday, striking energy infrastructure as well as civilian targets.
Ukraine’s prime minister, Yuliia Svyrydenko, described the overnight barrage as “one of the largest concentrated strikes” against Ukraine’s energy industry.
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The country’s national energy operator, Ukrenergo, reported power outages in Kyiv and the wider region, as well as in the Sumy, Kharkiv, Poltava, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Cherkasy regions.
Friday’s air attacks also struck civilian targets, wounding 20 people in the capital, Kyiv, and killing a seven-year-old boy in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region.
Ukraine’s air force said the latest Russian assault had included 465 strike and decoy drones, as well as 32 missiles of various types. Air defenses intercepted or jammed 405 drones and 15 missiles, it said.
U.S. defense think-tank the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) cited the air force as reporting that 13 missiles and 60 drones had struck 19 locations, and downed debris had fallen on seven locations.
The ISW said that “Russia is prioritizing strikes against civilian and energy infrastructure to continue its long-standing campaign to degrade Ukraine’s energy security ahead of winter 2025-2026 and demoralize the Ukrainian populace.”
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“Russia’s ongoing and ever-intensifying long-range strike campaign against Ukraine is just one indicator of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s disinterest in peace,” the institute wrote.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said the strikes had targeted energy facilities supplying Ukraine’s military. It did not give details of those facilities, but said Russian forces used Kinzhal hypersonic missiles and strike drones against them.
The energy sector has been a key battleground since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
Military-industrial complex
The Russian Defense Ministry also said Friday that over the past week, Russian forces had launched six combined strikes against Ukraine’s military-industrial complex and infrastructure including railway and port assets.
Russian battlegroups at various fronts inflicted losses on personnel and equipment of Ukrainian forces, the ministry said, adding that Russian air defense forces had shot down 1,719 Ukrainian drones.
A sustained campaign
The ministry said in a statement on the Telegram app on October 5 that the previous day it had struck military-industrial targets in a mass attack involving combat drones and long-range precision weapons, including Kinzhal missiles.
The statement also said Russian troops had struck rolling stock for rail transportation of military equipment to combat zones in the eastern Donbas region, a fuel supply center, storage and preparation sites for launching drones and rockets, as well as temporary deployment points of Ukrainian forces and foreign mercenaries in 137 areas.
A day earlier, Russia launched one of its biggest ever attacks on Ukraine’s gas infrastructure.
“The enemy carried out the largest mass attack on gas production infrastructure since the beginning of the war,” state-run gas company Naftogaz said in a statement.
“As a result of this attack, a significant portion of our facilities have been damaged. Some of the damage is critical,” The Moscow Times quoted Naftogaz chairman Serhiy Koretsky as saying.
Russia ‘lashing out’
Also on Friday, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported 198 combat encounters along the front lines in the past day, with Ukrainian forces repelling Russia’s offensive attempts.
State-run news agency Ukrinform reported that the country’s soldiers had repelled multiple attacks in the east and south as well as in the Kursk Oblast of southwestern Russia where Ukrainian forces still have a foothold.
The news agency reported that fighting was most intense around the Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk.
“Defense Forces are holding back the offensive and have already repelled 26 attacks, with eight combat clashes still ongoing,” Ukrinform wrote on Saturday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russia had tried to unblock their troops in the area of Dobropillia in the eastern Donetsk region but was defeated by the Ukrainian forces and suffered losses.
He also accused Moscow of lashing out at civilian targets in frustration at its battlefield losses.
“They can show nothing on the battlefield,” Zelenskyy told reporters on Friday. “All they can do is attack our power sector … and attack our cities.”