Editor’s note: This is a breaking story and will be updated regularly.
Russia carried out a mass overnight attack on multiple Ukrainian regions on Nov. 19, leaving at least 10 civilians dead and 86 injured, and causing widespread infrastructure damage and triggering emergency power outages.
Russia launched 476 drones and 48 missiles at Ukraine, including 47 cruise missiles and one ballistic missile, the Air Force reported.
Ukrainian air defenses intercepted 442 drones, 34 Kh-101 cruise missiles, and seven Kalibr cruise missiles. Meanwhile, seven missiles and 34 drones struck 14 locations, while debris from downed drones and missiles fell on six additional sites.
Around midnight local time, Russian drones attacked the city of Kharkiv, injuring at least 46 people, including two girls aged 9 and 13, according to Governor Oleh Syniehubov.
The Slobidskyi and Osnovianskyi districts were targeted, with Russian forces launching 19 Geran-2 drones. The strikes damaged a high-rise residential building, a hospital, and a school.
Oblasts in western Ukraine, including Ternopil and Lviv, located over 500 kilometers (about 300 miles) from the front line and the Russian border, were also affected.
The Russian attack on Ternopil killed 10 people and injured 37 others, including 12 children, according to Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko.
Two nine-story residential buildings were damaged in the strike. In one of them, the damage extended from the third to the ninth floor. Rescue workers continue search-and-recovery efforts, with people still trapped beneath the debris.
In Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, Russian strikes injured three people, including two children, Governor Svitlana Onyshchuk reported.
A large fire was reported in Lviv and pictures posted on Telegram by Lviv City Council deputy Ihor Zinkevich, showed a huge plume of smoke across the city as the sun rose.
“Close the windows, as the air may be polluted,” he warned residents.
Lviv Mayor Andrii Sadovyi later said a warehouse storing tyres had been hit and that there were no casualties.
Local authorities in the Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk oblasts also reported attacks on energy and other critical infrastructure.
“Russia is again attacking our energy infrastructure. Because of this, emergency power outages have been introduced in a number of regions of Ukraine,” the Energy Ministry said.
Vitaly Zaichenko, head of Ukrenergo, Ukraine’s state-grid operator, said Russia is attacking Ukraine’s energy sector in “waves,” warning that the load on western regions will increase as a result of the recent strikes.
“Russia is launching waves of attack starting from the east, then hitting the center, and then the western part of Ukraine,” Zaichenko told the Kyiv Independent.
While this attack was smaller than previous ones in October, Western Ukraine will experience “load shedding” for the first time this autumn, where power is cut to consumers to stabilize the grid, he said. But he expects it to only last one day.
“Every brazen attack on normal life (of Ukrainians) shows that the pressure on Russia is still insufficient. Effective sanctions and support for Ukraine can change that,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said, stressing Ukraine’s need for additional air defense.
“Russia must be held accountable for its actions, and we must focus on everything that strengthens us — everything that allows us to shoot down Russian missiles, neutralize Russian drones, and stop their assaults,” the president added.
Poland’s armed forces confirmed it had scrambled fighter jets in its own airspace in response to the Russian attack.
Russia regularly launches large-scale attacks on Ukrainian cities and in recent months, Moscow has intensified attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure in an attempt to plunge Ukraine into another harsh winter.
Destroy. Fix. Repeat: Russia is creating a devastating doom loop inside Ukraine’s energy system
