Zelenskyy: Every Ukrainian power plant damaged as outages spread across 7 regions
Key Facts
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an official address on November 5 that every power plant in Ukraine had been damaged “in one way or another” by the attacks, as strikes on energy infrastructure caused widespread power outages in 7 regions overnight on November 5-6 and on Friday morning, according to Ukraine’s Energy Ministry, as reported by the Associated Press. Zelenskyy described the scale of the damage to the energy sector, noting that Russian attacks were not limited to generation facilities. He said Russia was using Shahed drones and missiles to strike energy equipment relied on by nuclear plants. His remarks came as thousands of repair crews and energy company workers worked to address the damage and restore power. The address did not give an overall damage toll or a timetable for restoring supplies.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia had launched 227 attack drones overnight, including 86 jet-powered drones, and that Ukrainian defenses had shot down or disabled 196 of them. Strikes were reported at 14 locations, with debris falling at 8 other sites, according to the Associated Press. On another front in the exchange of attacks, Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces had shot down 496 Ukrainian drones over 13 Russian regions during the night of November 5-6. These figures remain attributed to the military authorities that announced them. In a separate address on November 6, Zelenskyy said Ukrainian aircraft alone had shot down 62 jet-powered Shahed drones in the previous 24 hours.
Russia’s Ryazan region came under a separate attack overnight on November 4-5, when its governor, Pavel Malkov, said more than 200 Ukrainian drones had targeted the region southeast of Moscow and injured one person. Malkov said drone debris damaged power lines and started a fire at an industrial site, according to the Associated Press. Russian media later reported a fire at the Ryazan refinery. In another incident, Ukraine’s General Staff said its forces had struck the Afipsky refinery in Krasnodar region, and reported that a fire broke out after the refinery was hit overnight. Russian officials said a fire caused by drone debris had been extinguished at the site, according to Reuters.
The burden of repairing the energy system includes, according to Zelenskyy, a need for transformers, power cables, modern electrical equipment, and diesel- and gas-powered generators. These needs put equipment and backup supplies at the center of efforts to restore service after the attacks, alongside the work of repair crews. The Ukrainian president said in an address on November 6 that his country had reached new agreements with Germany, Spain, Slovakia and other countries to provide equipment needed for repairs and reserves. The address gave no details on equipment quantities or delivery dates. Zelenskyy also said intelligence indicated preparations for another Russian attack targeting the energy sector, bridges across the Dnipro River and civilian infrastructure, and that Ukraine was preparing to defend them.
The developments coincided with talks in Brussels that concluded on November 5, involving officials from the United States, Britain, France, Germany and the European Union, as well as representatives of the World Bank and BlackRock, to discuss Ukraine’s reconstruction, public financing for 2027 and security guarantees. On the same day, the European Commission sent 4.4 billion euros to Ukraine under a 90 billion euro loan agreed by EU leaders in April. Zelenskyy said trilateral talks between Ukraine, Russia and the United States were scheduled to take place in Abu Dhabi during the following week. These tracks link financial support and energy equipment needs with discussions on reconstruction and security guarantees. The statements gave no further details on the meetings’ outcomes or financing terms.