Russian attacks struck nine regions of Ukraine on Friday, causing emergency power outages for hundreds of thousands of households, damaging homes and wounding at least 15 people, Ukrainian officials told the Associated Press — and Reuters reported at least three people killed, two shopping centres hit and around 370,000 people cut off from power in the northwest after strikes on the energy grid. The figures arrived alongside a monthly report from the UN human rights office in Kyiv, published Friday, recording a steep rise in civilian casualties as Russia's pre-winter bombardment of the power grid intensifies.
What did the UN report find?
The report found that at least 328 civilians were killed and 2,105 wounded in September, a total 85% higher than in September last year, AP reported. It said intensifying Russian attacks in October had already killed dozens of civilians, including children. "The first two weeks of October were among the deadliest periods for civilians in years," Danielle Bell, the head of the UN office, said, according to AP. AP reported that Russia is now striking not only the power grid but also apartment buildings, public transport, cargo ships, data centres and food stores, and that Ukrainian officials have warned Russia is stockpiling ballistic missiles for further attacks in the coming months, while Ukraine remains desperately short of US-made Patriot interceptor missiles.
What happened in Friday's strikes?
Reuters reported that two people died and 12 more were wounded in attacks on three districts of the eastern city of Kharkiv, according to Governor Oleh Syniehubov, who had earlier put the death toll at three. In the northwestern region of Volyn, which borders Poland, a drone strike on a food-processing facility killed one person and wounded eight others, Governor Roman Romaniuk said. Strikes on the grid there knocked out power to around 370,000 people; repair crews had reconnected about 100,000 by later in the morning, and the mayor of the regional capital, Lutsk, said the blackout there could last at least 24 hours. Drones also hit at least two shopping centres — one in the northern city of Sumy, close to the front line, and one in the neighbouring Rivne region, where seven people were wounded, officials told Reuters. The casualty and outage figures in this section are the regional governors' figures as reported by Reuters and AP; neither wire reported independent verification of them.
How is Ukraine hitting back?
Ukraine is answering with domestically developed long-range drones, AP reported. Russia's Defence Ministry said its air defences had intercepted 644 Ukrainian drones overnight over multiple Russian regions, annexed Crimea and the Black Sea — a ministry claim published here as the ministry stated it, via AP, without independent confirmation. Nearly 160 flights were delayed or cancelled at Moscow's four airports, according to the state-backed Moskva news agency, and Russia's civil aviation authority Rosaviatsia said restrictions at the four airports were in place from late Thursday night through early Friday; another 46 flights were delayed or cancelled at St Petersburg airport, local media reported. On the refinery campaign at the centre of Kyiv's dispute with Washington, Reuters reported that Russia has for the first time broadcast state-television images of a refinery attack's aftermath — Thursday's strike on the Ryazan plant, one of Russia's largest — breaking its usual practice of describing such hits only as strikes on "industrial enterprises", in order to highlight an attack President Donald Trump has called a "disgrace". Ukraine says it paused refinery strikes for three days in deference to Trump and resumed them because Russia kept pounding its thermal power plants and other energy infrastructure; President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday the recent strikes had not caused significant damage and vowed that Moscow would respond, Reuters reported.
The civilian casualty figures are the UN human rights office's monthly figures as reported by AP; the overnight strike tolls and outage figures are Ukrainian regional officials' figures as reported by Reuters and AP; and the 644-drone interception figure is a Russian Defence Ministry claim reported by AP, with no independent confirmation available at publication.
