Russia launches year's largest attack on Ukraine's energy grid
Russia launched the largest attack on Ukraine's energy system this year overnight on 2–3 November, firing 289 drones, 17 ballistic missiles and 59 cruise missiles at power facilities in nine to ten regions, Ukrainian officials said.
Russia launched the largest attack on Ukraine's energy system this year overnight on 2–3 November, firing 289 drones, 17 ballistic missiles and 59 cruise missiles at power facilities in nine to ten regions, Ukrainian officials said.
The energy minister called it the largest attack on the energy system this year. State grid operator Ukrenergo said Russian forces targeted its facilities more than 20 times overnight and during the day on 3 November, inflicting serious damage and launching one of the largest strikes on energy infrastructure since the start of the full-scale invasion.
Ukraine's largest private energy company, DTEK, said its facilities had been struck 78 times since around 2 November, and three of its power plants suspended operations after the 3 November attacks. A substation critical for a nuclear power plant was among the targets hit.
The strikes coincided with the start of the residential heating season, which Kyiv's mayor announced had begun on 2 November. Kyiv suffered its worst water outage of the full-scale war after the assault, and power cuts spread across Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Chernihiv and Cherkasy regions.
Ukraine's Air Force said it intercepted 83 percent of cruise missiles but only about 18 percent of ballistic and anti-ship missiles in the barrage.
Source
Source: Institute for the Study of War, Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment (3 Nov 2026); Kyiv Independent (3–4 Nov 2026); The Defence Briefing (6 Nov 2026).