Russian drones attacked energy facilities in several regions of Ukraine overnight into Friday; in the morning, according to the state grid operator Ukrenergo, consumers in eight regions are without power. The affected regions are Zhytomyr, Donetsk, Volyn, Mykolaiv, Poltava, Khmelnytskyi, Kharkiv and Rivne, Ukrenergo announced on Facebook on Friday, 23 October, as reported by the news agency Ukrinform.
“At night and in the morning, the enemy carried out drone attacks on energy facilities in several regions. As a result, there are new power outages in the morning,” Ukrinform quotes the statement. The energy workers had begun repairs wherever the security situation allowed.
Because of the consequences of the attacks, forced capacity limits for industry and hourly shutdown schedules of up to two stages apply in some regions until the end of the day. Electricity consumption on Friday at 9:30 a.m. (local time) was 3.6% below the level of the previous day. Ukrenergo called for limiting the use of high-power electrical appliances between 4:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m.
More than ten Shahed-type drones had deliberately attacked facilities in the region, with the most severe damage to infrastructure concentrated in Lutsk and Kovel, reports the English-language news outlet NV. Because of the power outage, the pumping of tap water in the regional capital Lutsk is partially restricted. In Lutsk district, debris and blast effects injured a civilian and damaged a private residential building.
According to the Ukrainian Air Force, Russia deployed 176 Shahed-type combat drones overnight into 23 October, including 92 fast jet-powered models, accompanied by Gerbera decoy drones and Parodija simulators to deceive radar. 140 of the incoming drones were intercepted, including 68 of the jet-powered Shahed variants, NV reports, citing the Air Force.
The private energy supplier DTEK announced, according to NV, that a large thermal power plant was directly hit hard during a concentrated Russian attack at night and had completely stopped generating electricity. Ukrinform reports that the Russians had massively shelled one of DTEK’s thermal power plants, after which it stopped generation.
