“Sunday evening for the city of Sumy became hell, a tragedy that Russia brought to our land.” So said Volodymyr Artyukh, head of the Sumy military administration, after a Russian missile slammed into a residential building on November 17, 2024. It was one strike in a nationwide barrage aimed at Ukraine’s power system.
CBC News, reporting with Thomson Reuters and The Associated Press, said Ukrainian officials counted 11 dead in Sumy, two of them children. Another 89 people were injured, among them 11 children, according to the state emergency service. More than 400 people were evacuated from the building. A second missile strike knocked out power across the region’s administrative centre.
120 missiles, 90 drones
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia fired 120 missiles and 90 drones in all. The mix included Iranian-made Shaheds, cruise missiles, ballistic missiles and aircraft-launched ballistic missiles. Ukraine’s air force said its defences brought down 144 of the 210 air targets.
“The enemy’s target was our energy infrastructure throughout Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said. “Unfortunately, there is damage to objects from hits and falling debris.” In Mykolaiv a drone attack killed two people and wounded six, two of them children. In the Odesa region, two more people died and energy infrastructure was damaged, disrupting power and water, said Gov. Oleh Kiper. Both victims worked for Ukrenergo, the state-owned grid operator.
Serhii Popko, head of Kyiv’s City Military Administration, called it the most powerful combined attack in three months. In the capital, the roof of a five-storey residential building in the historic centre caught fire and one person was hurt. DTEK, a private energy company, said one of its thermal power plants was “seriously damaged.”
Fears for the winter
The strikes came as worry grew that Moscow meant to cripple Ukraine’s generating capacity before winter. Russian attacks have hit the grid since the full-scale invasion of February 2022, forcing emergency shutdowns and rolling blackouts nationwide. Ukrainian officials have repeatedly asked Western allies for stronger air defences.
Explosions were heard in Kyiv, the southern port of Odesa, and the west and centre of the country. Poland’s armed forces said they scrambled Polish and allied aircraft, including fighter jets, in response to the “massive” assault on their neighbour.
Russia’s Defence Ministry acknowledged a “mass” missile and drone strike on “critical energy infrastructure,” but claimed every target was tied to Kyiv’s military industry. The UN nuclear watchdog said Ukraine’s nuclear plants were not directly hit, though several electrical substations they rely on took further damage. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, only two of Ukraine’s nine operating reactors were still producing power at full capacity.
