After the end of the two-day negotiations in Abu Dhabi, Russia launched massive attacks on Ukraine overnight into Thursday – according to local authorities, ten people died nationwide and 40 others were injured. The Kyiv Independent reported this on Thursday, 12 November, citing the regional administrations. In Chornomorsk in the Odesa region alone, at least four people died and eight others were injured when a missile hit a market in the city centre, according to Governor Oleh Kiper.
In Kyiv, according to Mayor Vitali Klitschko, a woman was killed when a drone struck a nine-storey residential building; eight people were injured. The capital’s military administration told the Kyiv Independent that one person was killed and seven injured, while Mayor Vitali Klitschko spoke of eight injured. According to n-tv.de, citing military-affiliated Telegram channels, a large DIY store in the north of Kyiv was also hit. In the Donetsk region, according to Governor Vadym Filashkin, two people died in Sloviansk and Kramatorsk and five were injured; later Filashkin reported one more injured person. In the Kharkiv region, according to Governor Oleh Syniehubov, Russian attacks killed two people and injured two others. In the Kherson region, according to Governor Oleksandr Prokudin, one person died.
Hits on substations and a power outage in Shepetivka
According to Ukrainian Prime Minister Serhii Koretskyi, the attacks also targeted energy and transport infrastructure, as n-tv.de reports. According to the report, a power generation facility in Zaporizhzhia and high-voltage substations in the Odesa region and in the Rivne region in western Ukraine were hit. Russia said it had also targeted substations in the Zhytomyr region. In the Khmelnytskyi region, according to Governor Serhii Tiurin, energy facilities were damaged, and emergency shutdowns occurred in the Shepetivka district. In the Rivne region, according to Governor Oleksandr Koval, more than 160 settlements remain without power. In the Volyn region, according to Governor Roman Romaniuk, one person was injured in the city of Kovel. In the Zaporizhzhia region, Governor Ivan Fedorov said he counted 797 attacks on 55 settlements and 15 injured people, including a child.
The Ukrainian air force reported in the morning that Russia had used Iskander-M/KN-23/S-400 missiles, Zircon cruise missiles as well as Gerbera and Banderol/Dan-T drones, a total of 123 long-range drones, 73 of them jet-powered. By 8 a.m. local time, according to the air force, five Banderol/Dan-T and 89 drones had been intercepted, including 51 jet-powered ones. There were impacts at 17 locations, and debris from intercepted attack vehicles came down at 18 sites. Since 11 August, Ukraine has no longer given precise figures on the number of missiles used by Russia.
First a prisoner exchange, then the attack
The attacks began immediately after the end of the talks between Kyiv and Moscow under US mediation in Abu Dhabi. For two days, representatives of both countries had negotiated there about a possible end to the war; apart from a planned prisoner exchange, the talks produced no tangible result. Details of this agreement were to be announced at a later date, said the head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky, according to n-tv.de. The Ukrainian negotiator Davyd Arakhamia spoke of a possible “solution before the new year” and “major progress” on previously unresolved questions. After the talks in Moscow, a second round of negotiations was to be scheduled.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had spoken on Wednesday evening at a joint press conference with Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin in Dublin of a “window of time” in which those involved “sincerely want to reach a result before 2027”. He hoped that the US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner would return with “something concrete” from a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow planned for the course of the day. Kushner said before the press, according to the Kyiv Independent, that they saw “some openings and some possibilities”; afterwards the US envoys wanted to travel to Dublin to brief Zelensky, who plans to take part in an informal meeting of EU heads of state and government there on 13 November. According to the Russian state news agency TASS, Kremlin officials Yuri Ushakov and Kirill Dmitriev as well as Medinsky, who heads the Russian delegation in Abu Dhabi, are taking part in the meeting in Moscow.
The damage to the power grid is already causing regular power outages and shutdowns in Kyiv and other cities before the start of winter. For the people in Ukraine, this means: more nights in shelters, interrupted heating and pumps – and that shortly before the cold season. In Germany, it is above all the Ukrainian refugees who follow the news from home; there were no concrete new decisions on their status on Thursday.
The Russian Ministry of Defence said its air defence had shot down more than 70 Ukrainian drones; these figures cannot be independently verified. According to its own statements, Ukraine again attacked targets in the Russian rear.
Earlier coverage: Ukraine: Air Force says 94 targets downed in Russian attack
