Ukraine and Russia engaged in a large-scale exchange of drone attacks Tuesday night, with Russian strikes impacting power substations in northern Ukraine and a cargo ship, while Ukrainian drones targeted a logistics center and a data center within Russia. According to Russia's Ministry of Defense, its strikes hit the Nalivaikovka power substation in the Kyiv region and the Chizhovka power substation in the Zhytomyr region.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that these "complex, massive" attacks are part of Moscow's ongoing efforts to target Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. He reported that Russia's overnight attacks damaged power generation facilities and substations across nine regions: Odesa, Cherkasy, Zhytomyr, Vinnytsia, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Chernivtsi, Chernihiv, and Rivne. "In many cities and communities, emergency and unscheduled power outages are ongoing," Zelenskyy said in a social media post. These strikes follow a deadly Russian attack on Monday that killed 31 people at an aid distribution site in southern Ukraine.
Ukraine’s Air Force reported that as of Wednesday morning, it had intercepted 272 Russian drones. However, 20 drones were still airborne, and combat operations were continuing. Russia's Defense Ministry claimed to have intercepted 709 Ukrainian drones across 14 Russian regions, occupied Crimea, and the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea.
In response, Ukrainian drone strikes hit a major logistics complex in Adygeysk, southern Russia, operated by Ozon, a large e-commerce retailer. The facility is one of the company's largest in the southern part of the country. Additionally, on the Russia-Ukraine border, eight people, including four children, were injured when Ukrainian strikes hit apartment buildings and cars, according to regional Governor Alexander Shuvaev.
In Russian-occupied Crimea, power supply restrictions were imposed due to an unspecified accident. In Russian-occupied Donetsk, a telecommunications company and a data center were reportedly hit. Airports in several Russian cities, including Krasnodar, Kaluga, Saratov, Nizhny Novgorod, Izhevsk, Bugulma, Kazan, Nizhnekamsk, Volgograd, Samara, Ulyanovsk, and Ufa, as well as Moscow’s Vnukovo and Domodedovo, experienced temporary restrictions.
These escalations occur as Ukraine and Russia prepare for a new round of U.S.-mediated peace talks scheduled for mid-November in Abu Dhabi. Kyiv aims to secure an end to Russian strikes on its energy and critical infrastructure as winter approaches.