Russian Missile and Drone Attack on Ukraine Power Grid Kill Four

Russian missile and drone strikes battered Ukraine's power grid on Monday, Aug. 26, killing at least four people and forcing authorities to introduce emergency blackouts.

Officials said 15 regions across the country were targeted in the aerial assault which began during the night and was the biggest in weeks.

The attacks come as Ukraine presses a major cross-border offensive into Russia's Kursk region, where Kyiv has been battling for nearly three weeks and claimed on Sunday to be advancing.

"The desire to destroy our energy sector will cost the Russians dearly for their infrastructure,"  Andriy Yermak, head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, reported.  

In response to the attack, DTEK announced that they received orders from Ukrenergo to implement emergency blackouts nationwide.

"During emergency outages, schedules that can be predicted in advance are not valid. Power engineers from all over the country are working 24/7 to restore electricity to Ukrainian homes," the company said.

The Cherkasy Regional State Administration reported that emergency power outages were enforced in the region starting at 8:45 a.m., following orders from Ukrenergo.

Similar measures were taken in the Mykolaiv region, where power company "Mykolaivoblenergo" confirmed the implementation of emergency shutdowns.

In Kyiv, members of the Kyiv Post team reported hearing multiple explosions in different districts of the capital.

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If this information is confirmed, it would be the first time such a weapon had been used since Russia invaded in February 2022.

Explosions were also reported in cities and regions across Ukraine, including Kharkiv, Kryvyi Rih, Kropyvnytsky, Dnipro, Khmelnytsky, and Vinnytsia.

The Russian military launched missiles from the Caspian Sea, with aircraft taking off from airfields in Engels, Diaghilev, Olenya, and Shaikovka. Additionally, missiles were launched from Black Sea carriers, and a massive raid by Russian attack drones was reported in various regions, including Rivne, Zhytomyr, Kyiv, Poltava, Chernihiv, and Sumy.

The governor of the central Dnipropetrovsk region, Sergiy Lysak, said Russian forces had attacked "en masse."  

"There is one dead, a 69-year-old man," the governor wrote on social media.

In the Zaporizhzhia region, the attack killed one civilian, the governor, Ivan Fedorov said, without elaborating.

In the western city of Lutsk, a residential building was damaged during a Russian attack, according to the city's mayor, Ihor Polishchuk.  He added that one person had been killed.

Initially, Yuri Pohulyayko, head of the Volyn Regional State Administration, reported that the damage was caused by debris from a Russian drone shot down by air defense forces. However, as videos from the scene surfaced on social media, it became clear that the drone had deliberately targeted the high-rise building.

The attack also prompted Poland to raise its aviation alert. Ukrainians were urged to stay in safe places, and traffic on the Dnipro HPP dam was temporarily blocked due to the security situation.

The Russian defence ministry said it had struck energy infrastructure used to support Ukraine's defence industry.

Since invading in February 2022, Russia has launched repeated large-scale drone and missile attacks on Ukraine, including attacks on energy facilities.