In a brutal escalation of the ongoing conflict, Russia launched a massive missile and drone assault on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure on the night of August 27th. The attacks targeted critical water and energy facilities with severe damage and the loss of several civilian lives.
The attack began around midnight and persisted until dawn, with Russian forces unleashing a barrage of 127 missiles and 109 drones. According to Mykola Oleshchuk, the commander of the Ukrainian Air Force, 102 of these missiles were successfully intercepted. However, the scale and intensity of the assault left a trail of destruction across Ukraine, with reports indicating at least four to seven civilians lost their lives in the strikes.
The timing of the attack is particularly notable, coming just two days after Ukraine celebrated its Independence Day and unveiled its first long-range domestically produced drone, the Palianytsia. Ukrainian sources suggest that the drone attacks were part of a coordinated effort, hitting targets in the northern, southern, eastern, and central regions of the country. These drone strikes were soon followed by volleys of cruise and ballistic missiles, potentially including Russia’s advanced hypersonic Kinzhal missiles.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the assault, describing it as “vile” and emphasizing that, like many previous Russian strikes, this one targeted essential civilian infrastructure.
“Most of the country was targeted, from the Kharkiv region and Kyiv to Odesa and the west,” Zelenskyy stated, highlighting the widespread nature of the attack.
The impact of the strikes was severe, with explosions heard as far as Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. The attacks resulted in widespread power and water outages, with significant disruptions reported in multiple cities, including Kyiv.
“The energy infrastructure has once again become the target of Russian terrorists,” said Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal. He noted that the state-owned power grid operator, Ukrenergo, had to implement emergency power cuts to stabilize the system.
Shmyhal also called on Ukraine’s allies to supply long-range weapons and authorize their use against targets within Russia. “To stop the barbaric shelling of Ukrainian cities, it is necessary to destroy the place from which the Russian missiles are launched,” he urged. He further emphasized the importance of holding Russia accountable, stating, “We count on the support of our allies and will make Russia pay.”
The Russian Defense Ministry issued a statement claiming responsibility for the attacks, asserting that “long-range precision air- and sea-based weapons and strike drones” targeted critical energy infrastructure supporting Ukraine’s military-industrial complex. The ministry claimed that all designated targets were successfully hit.
The civilian toll of the attack was grim, with casualties reported in Lutsk, the central Dnipropetrovsk region, Zhytomyr, and the partially occupied Zaporizhzhia region. In addition to those killed, thirteen others were wounded, including individuals in the Kiev region, Lutsk, the southern Mykolaiv region, and the Odesa region. The assault also caused extensive blackouts and damage to civilian infrastructure and residential buildings, stretching from Sumy in the east to the Mykolaiv and Odesa regions in the south, and as far west as the Rivne region.
In Sumy, a province bordering Russia, the local administration reported that 194 settlements lost power, with another 19 experiencing partial blackouts. The widespread damage underscores the vulnerability of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure to continued Russian aggression.
Ukraine did not remain passive in the face of these attacks. On the same night, Ukrainian forces launched their drone strikes on Russian territory. These strikes reportedly resulted in the deaths of four civilians in the central Saratov region after Ukrainian drones hit residential buildings. Two drones struck residential areas in Saratov and Engels, both cities that host military facilities. The Russian Defense Ministry reported intercepting twenty-two Ukrainian drones across eight provinces, including Saratov and Yaroslavl.
