Ukraine scrambles to restore power to 200,000 after Russian attacks as fears of further blackouts grow

This handout photograph taken by the State Emergency Service of Ukraine and released on October 27, 2026 shows firefighters extinguishing a fire in a damaged building following an air strike on Kyiv, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. — AFP pic

First Published: Friday, 30 Oct 2026 5:42 PM MYT

KYIV, Oct 30 — More than 200,000 people remain without power in Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region following Russian attacks, authorities said today, a day after a deadly Russian drone strike on a train station there.

Russia’s defence ministry meanwhile said that its air defence systems had overnight shot down more than 1,000 Ukrainian drones across Russian regions.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia had used ballistic missiles and drones to attack several regions overnight, including Dnipropetrovsk, causing a widespread blackout in Dnipro city.

Power company DTEK said grid operator Ukrenergo had ordered emergency power cuts across the city, as well as in adjacent districts and in parts of Pavlograd district.

“Equipment in the region has been seriously damaged due to enemy attacks,” it said, adding that energy workers had worked through the night and were still busy trying to “restore power to critical infrastructure facilities”.

Dnipropetrovsk regional governor Oleksandr Ganzha said on Telegram that power engineers in the region had “restored electricity supply to most consumers in the region who were cut off due to Russian attacks”.

But he said that “more than 200,000 subscribers remain without power”.

Mykola Lukashuk, who heads the regional council, meanwhile warned that “the enemy is trying to destroy the power supply in the region”.

He urged people to “assume that repeated attacks and prolonged disruptions to electricity, water and communications are possible”.

“Even if you currently have power, use this time to prepare for the next outage,” he advised residents across the region.

Dnipro mayor Borys Filatov also called on people to “keep a supply of water at home for at least one or two days”.

Russia has targeted Ukrainian energy infrastructure throughout the war, in attacks that Ukraine says are war crimes aimed at wearing down its resistance.

The strikes have often come ahead of winter, cutting heating and power to millions in freezing temperatures.

The power outages in Dnipro came after a Russian drone slammed into a busy railway platform there on Thursday, killing at least 14 people and wounding more than a dozen others, in an attack that President Volodymyr Zelensky described as “horrific”. — AFP