Russian Night Strikes Black Out Zhytomyr and Hit Cities Across Ukraine Despite Mass Drone Intercepts
A large Russian missile and drone attack left the city of Zhytomyr completely without power, damaged logistics hubs in western Ukraine, and killed and injured civilians in Kherson and Sumy, even as Ukrainian air defenses reported downing most incoming drones and all four Kalibr cruise missiles.
Russian missiles and drones left a trail of outages and damage across Ukraine overnight, including a total power loss in the city of Zhytomyr and new civilian casualties in Kherson and Sumy.
Ukraine’s air defenses reported that Russia launched a large mixed strike using missiles and unmanned systems, including 332 drones of various types and at least four Kalibr cruise missiles. Ukrainian forces say they shot down 289 of the drones and all four Kalibrs. Even with that interception rate, hits were recorded at 22 locations, and debris from destroyed targets fell on three more.
One of the most severe effects was in Zhytomyr, a regional center in the north. So‑called Geranium (Shahed) drones struck the 330 kV substation PS330. The attack caused a full blackout across the city, cutting electricity to homes and key facilities. Local reports say Zhytomyr is now completely without power.
In western Volyn region, a Geranium drone hit a truck parking lot in Kovel. Observers there describe the strike as part of a broader Russian effort to disrupt logistics infrastructure in Ukraine’s west, including warehouses, depots and transport hubs. Separate footage from Novohrad‑Volynskyi (Zviahel) in Zhytomyr region shows damage from another Shahed strike.
Kherson City in the south came under repeated attack from guided aerial bombs. Russian forces used KAB glide bombs against residential areas, including a strike on an apartment building that killed at least one civilian and injured 12 others, according to local authorities. More than seven additional KABs hit other targets in the city.
Later, Russian aircraft reportedly attacked the city’s Korabelny district twice. Regional officials said that across the day’s air assaults on this part of Kherson, one person was killed and 19 were wounded.
In Sumy region in the northeast, Russian aircraft dropped eight guided aerial bombs on the Sumy community, four of them on the regional capital. At least two people were injured. One bomb struck a residential sector on the outskirts of Sumy, clipping a multi‑story apartment block before landing in a nearby body of water. Local accounts say that trajectory helped avoid heavier consequences for people living close by.
The pattern points to a Russian campaign that mixes mass drone launches with precision strikes on power infrastructure, transport hubs and residential districts. Each successful hit on a substation or logistics site brings immediate local disruption and, taken together, increases the pressure on Ukraine’s grid and supply system as colder weather approaches.
How quickly engineers can restore electricity in Zhytomyr, whether western logistics nodes such as Kovel keep operating under threat, and how many additional air‑defense missiles Ukraine’s partners are prepared to supply will shape the impact of this latest wave of strikes.
Sources
- OSINT