Russian strikes hit 9 Ukrainian regions, causing widespread power outages

 Conceptual illustration of Ukraine’s electricity network under attack; it is not a photograph of the strikes. Russian attacks overnight and on Friday, October 16, disrupted power across Kyiv and eight Ukrainian regions, leaving hundreds of thousands of households without electricity and at least 15 people wounded, according to Ukrainian officials cited by the Associated Press. Ukraine’s grid operator Ukrenergo said drone strikes hit energy facilities in Kyiv, Kyiv region, Volyn, Odesa, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Sumy and Chernihiv. Emergency repairs have begun where security conditions allow. Rolling outages of up to two shifts and limits on industrial power use were expected to continue through the day, Ukrenergo said in a statement reported by [Ukrinform](https://www.ukrinform.ua/amp/rubric-economy/4175004-cerez-masovanu-ataku-rf-e-novi-znestrumlenna-u-kievi-ta-vosmi-oblastah.html). The full number of affected customers, the duration of the outages and a detailed damage assessment have not been published. Separate weather-related outages affected 11 settlements in Poltava and Sumy regions, Ukrenergo said; those were not attributed to the strikes. The attacks come as Ukraine prepares for colder weather, when damage to power infrastructure can also disrupt heating and water services. The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission reported that 328 civilians were killed and 2,105 injured in September, 85% more casualties than in September 2025. Those figures cover the whole month and are separate from Friday’s attack. ~worldnews ~ukraine