Russian Strikes on Ukraine Grid Kill 7, Kyiv Says; Drone Hits School
Ukrainian officials say the heaviest attack on the energy system in months brought power cuts to Kyiv, a day before a drone hit a school where children were sheltering.
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File photo: damage at Kyiv's Darnytska combined heat and power plant after a Russian attack on 3 February 2026, photographed on 12 February 2026. It does not show the 30 September attack. Photo: Ministry for Development of Communities and Territories of Ukraine, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Russia carried out its heaviest combined attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in months on Wednesday, according to Ukrainian officials, who said seven people were killed, including a child. Grid operator Ukrenergo imposed emergency power cuts in Kyiv and three surrounding regions. On Thursday morning, a drone that Ukrainian officials said was Russian hit a school in the capital while more than 100 pupils and about 60 staff were in its shelter, Kyiv police said. No casualties were reported at the school.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 188 attack drones, including 86 jet-powered drones, along with ballistic and anti-ship missiles, from the evening of 29 September, with the Kyiv region the main target. It said that as of 08:00 on Wednesday its air defences had shot down or suppressed five missiles and 155 drones, Ukrinform reported. By early evening, the air force said it had intercepted 254 of 285 drones launched, France 24 reported. President Volodymyr Zelensky said critical infrastructure was hit in five regions, with further damage reported in five more.
Power cuts return to the capital
Ukrenergo said the emergency outages were a result of the attack, and France 24 reported it was the first time such a measure had been imposed in the capital since the spring. Authorities said a key power plant and other energy facilities around Kyiv were damaged. The air-raid alert in Kyiv lasted more than 12 hours. Mayor Vitali Klitschko said debris had been found at a Western embassy but gave no further details.
Russia’s defence ministry said it had delivered a “massive strike” with ground-based high-precision weapons and attack drones on a communications centre in Kyiv, as well as on energy facilities and port infrastructure in Izmail, in the Odesa region, CNBC reported. Russia denies targeting civilians, France 24 noted.
The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said the barrage marked “the beginning of Russia’s strike campaign aimed at degrading Ukraine’s energy security ahead of winter,” the Associated Press reported. Serhii Beskrestnov, an adviser to Zelensky on defence technology, said Russia used a new jet-powered drone for the first time, fitted with a warhead designed to sever high-voltage pylons.
A school hit as children shelter
On Thursday morning, a drone struck a four-storey school in Kyiv’s Solomianskyi district. Kyiv police said the strike damaged the building’s facade at third-floor level and started a fire. Zelensky said it was a Russian Shahed drone and that a wall was partially destroyed and windows and doors were damaged. Klitschko said the drone’s warhead did not explode, the AP reported.
An air-raid alert was in force, so children and staff were already in the shelter. “At the moment of the strike, all children and school staff were in the shelter. There are no casualties,” Education Minister Andriy Butenko wrote on Telegram, thanking teachers and the school’s administration for their “clear and timely actions.” He also said that kindergartens, schools, colleges, universities and research institutions now come under attack virtually every day, Interfax-Ukraine reported.
Zelensky said Russia “must bear clear responsibility” for the strike and called on Ukraine’s partners to increase pressure on Moscow and provide more support. Overnight, attacks also caused a fire in a 16-storey residential building in Solomianskyi district and a large warehouse fire in Obolonskyi district, with one person injured, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said, according to Ukrinform. Klitschko said a drone also hit the grounds of a non-residential complex in Pecherskyi district.
A city under strain
The attacks follow days of heavy drone raids on Kyiv. Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman, Dmytro Lubinets, said there was a critical shortage of urban shelters and described the civil defence system as having “completely failed,” France 24 reported.
Residents describe the psychological toll. “I’m constantly anxious. I can’t relax,” Kyiv resident Maryna Lystopad, 35, told the AP. She said she keeps thinking that if something hits, one of her relatives could be killed.
Air defence remains a central issue. Ukraine needs US-made Patriot missiles to defend against ballistic missiles, but they have been in short supply since the Iran war began, according to the AP. Kyiv is racing to produce new interceptors for fast jet-powered drones. Zelensky said on Thursday that Ukrainian forces had struck a site in Russia’s Oryol region that is used to store and launch attack drones.
What comes next
Ukrainian officials did not report any energy infrastructure being hit on Thursday, the AP reported. Russia is expected to step up attacks on the electricity supply as the weather gets colder, according to the AP. At the UN General Assembly on 23 September, Zelensky warned that without an energy truce, “we will have no choice but to make it painful for Russia too,” CNBC reported. How Ukraine’s grid and air defences hold up in the coming weeks will shape conditions for millions of people this winter.
