Ukraine enforced nationwide rolling blackouts for a second consecutive day on Thursday amid a surge in Russian air strikes on the country's energy infrastructure, Ukraine’s state grid operator, Ukrenergo reported. Russian forces launched hundreds of drones and missiles, and glide bombs in the early hours of October 16, targeting gas facilities in eastern Ukraine and causing significant disruption to the network in the latest large-scale attack by Moscow. The scheduled power outages are intended to conserve electricity nationwide, with authorities encouraging citizens to reduce their usage.
On Thursday, Russia's military announced it had carried out a "massive" attack on Ukrainian gas facilities using ballistic missiles and drones. “Russia launched more than 300 attack drones and 37 missiles, a significant number of them ballistic, against Ukraine. This autumn, the Russians use every single day to strike at our energy infrastructure,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on X. The regions of Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Poltava, Sumy and Vinnytsia were most hit during the large-scale attack. Among the struck facilities is the Shebelinka gas processing plant in Kharkiv region, where thick smoke and fiercely burning fires could be seen in the aftermath of the attack.
The chief executive of the Ukrainian gas company Naftogaz, Sergii Koretskyi, said the operation of a number of critically important facilities has been halted in several regions. Since starting its full-fledged invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russia has been attacking Ukraine's energy grid ahead of winter months, causing power blackouts and forcing Kyiv to import energy from abroad.
Ukraine’s air force reported that the Russian attack involved 320 drones and 37 missiles, noting that 283 of the drones and five missiles were successfully intercepted. Thursday's air bombardments of Ukraine's energy infrastructure comes on the eve of Zelenskiy's visit to the White House, where US supply of long-range Tomahawks missile could be on top of the agenda of the meeting with Trump. The US president in recent weeks has hinted that the US might supply Ukraine with Tomahawks that have a range of over 2,000 kilometres. On Sunday, Trump told reporters that Tomahawks could be sent to Ukraine if the war is not stopped.
