In Sumy, a Russian FPV drone deliberately attacked a car carrying energy workers on Monday morning, injuring three employees of the state operator Ukrenergo. The company’s press service reported this, as Radio Svoboda reported on Monday, 9 November. The injured were taken to hospital, one of them is in a serious condition.
“Russia continues to deliberately attack not only the energy infrastructure but also the people who keep it running and restore damaged facilities,” Ukrenergo said, according to Radio Svoboda. The energy technicians work every day under constant danger so that Ukrainians have electricity. “And today’s strike is further proof of the price at which this work is done.”
The attack comes amid a tense situation in the power grid. According to Ukrenergo, twelve oblasts were affected by power outages on Monday, with the situation particularly critical in Kyiv Oblast and Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, the Kyiv Independent reports. According to the report, the affected oblasts were Chernihiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Khmelnytskyi, Kyiv, Odesa, Poltava, Rivne, Vinnytsia, Zaporizhzhia and Zhytomyr. Where the security situation allows, emergency repairs are under way to restore supply to households.
Because of the difficult grid situation, emergency shutdowns were also introduced in Sumy, Poltava and Kharkiv oblasts on Monday morning, according to Ukrenergo; previously announced outage schedules in these regions were suspended. Overnight into Monday, power lines were also hit in the village of Solochiv and in the city of Kharkiv, Kharkiv Oblast Governor Oleh Syniehubov said, according to the Kyiv Independent. Massive attacks on the power grid were also reported from Odesa Oblast, according to local authorities, and an energy facility was hit in Rivne Oblast, according to local authorities.
According to Ukrenergo, one of the largest Russian waves of attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure had already taken place on 3 November; the main targets were power plants and transmission and distribution substations. The following day, according to the Energy Ministry, nuclear power plants also had to reduce their output because of the massive attacks. According to Ukrenergo, the Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure began at the end of September 2026, shortly before the heating season.
