In Dnipro and surrounding towns, numerous electricity customers are without power after Russian strikes overnight into Friday; in the city, neither trams nor trolleybuses ran in the morning, and the metro also initially stood still. This is reported by the Kyiv Post, citing the governor of Dnipropetrovsk region, Oleksandr Hanzha, and the grid operator DTEK.
On Friday, 30 October, according to the news outlet NV, the Ukrainian air force registered attacks with Iskander-M, S-400 and KN-23 missiles, four Kh-59/69 cruise missiles and 113 drones throughout the night. By 7:30 a.m., 99 air targets had been intercepted or suppressed, including three of the cruise missiles and 96 drones. According to NV, direct hits were recorded in 17 towns, and debris from intercepted projectiles at five other locations.
A blackout that paralyses the whole city
According to DTEK, the grid operator Ukrenergo ordered emergency shutdowns in Dnipro, the adjacent districts and parts of Pavlohrad district. The facilities in the region had been severely damaged by the Russian attacks on 29 October, reports Ukrainska Pravda. Hanzha had initially announced in the morning that the energy suppliers had reconnected some consumers to the grid overnight; later he wrote that Dnipro was again without power because the energy system could not carry the load.
The mayor of Dnipro, Borys Filatov, urged residents to have food and water at home for at least a few days and to stay at home as much as possible. “Unfortunately, Dnipro is in blackout again,” he wrote, according to Ukrainska Pravda. Apart from buses, no electric public transport is running – neither trams nor trolleybuses nor the metro. The city’s transport department later announced that by 7:30 a.m. the metro was partially back in operation, with trains running every 16 minutes.
The Kyiv Post reports that water and wastewater pumping stations are being switched to emergency generators to maintain basic supply. DTEK confirmed that the attacks had damaged important power grids.
Kremenchuk: hit on an industrial facility
Russian forces also attacked an industrial company in Kremenchuk district in Poltava region overnight, as the head of the local military administration, Vitalii Diakivnych, announced on Telegram according to the Kyiv Post. He said the authorities were working to establish the consequences; the name of the facility and the extent of the damage were not initially known. According to NV, the Russian troops used both ballistic and cruise missiles.
The new attack came less than a day after Russian strikes on residential areas in Kremenchuk, in which, according to the Kyiv Post, three people were killed and 32 injured, including six children. The regional authorities declared Friday a day of mourning for the victims.
In the capital Kyiv, the situation remained tense overnight. After a ballistic attack late on Thursday, Russian missiles struck warehouses in Darnytskyi district and caused fires; debris and blast waves damaged residential buildings and vehicles in the neighbouring Dniprovskyi district. The city administration confirmed one fatality, according to the Kyiv Post. NV reports, citing the air force, that one person was also killed in the district overnight when debris partially destroyed a single-storey building. According to NV, the death toll from the attack on Dnipro station on 29 October rose to 15.
President Volodymyr Zelensky warned on Thursday that Ukrainian intelligence had indications of further Russian preparations for ballistic attacks. “We need the capabilities to shoot down this Russian evil, and we are waiting for decisions,” he wrote, according to the Kyiv Post. He called for urgent deliveries of interceptor missiles, in particular for Patriot systems of US manufacture. Kyiv has been pressing Washington for months to approve the delivery of Patriot and NASAMS missiles – including interceptors that European allies have already paid for but which are still awaiting approval from the Pentagon.
For the people in Dnipro, the outage means more than dark streets: without electricity, lifts, heating and water pumps stop working, while temperatures head towards winter. The Kyiv Post places the attacks in a series with which Ukraine is preparing for another winter under Russian bombardment of civilian infrastructure.
Editor’s note: The figures on casualties and damage come from Ukrainian authorities and media; we cannot independently verify them.
