Russian forces struck 10 Ukrainian regions overnight in air attacks that hit five major electrical substations, sparked widespread power outages and killed two people, Ukrainian officials said on Tuesday, November 10, 2026 — a renewed winter campaign against Ukraine's power grid launched on the very day Russian, Ukrainian and US negotiators opened two days of talks in Abu Dhabi.

Source: Reuters

Ukrainian Prime Minister Sergiy Koretskyi said on Telegram that Russia had hit substations in the Poltava, Dnipropetrovsk, Vinnytsia and Kirovohrad regions — substations that transmit electricity between regions. The two people killed died in the Vinnytsia region, officials said.

Earlier, state grid operator Ukrenergo said Russia had struck energy infrastructure in eight regions overnight and into the morning: Kyiv, Kharkiv, Sumy, Poltava, Dnipropetrovsk, Vinnytsia, Cherkasy and Kirovohrad. The attacks left homes without power in six regions — Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kyiv, Sumy, Kharkiv and Chernihiv — and scheduled blackouts and capacity restrictions remained in force in some regions.

Damage on the ground

Energy company DTEK said Russian strikes damaged key equipment in the Dnipropetrovsk region and cut power to a large part of the cities of Dnipro and Kamianske. In the same region, officials said Russia attacked four districts with drones more than 20 times overnight. In the central Kirovohrad region, civilian infrastructure including a major home improvement store also came under attack, regional governor Andriy Raikovych said.

The strikes are part of a renewed Russian air campaign against energy infrastructure that has intensified in recent days as temperatures in Ukraine fall toward freezing. This is the fifth winter of Russia's full-scale invasion, which began on February 24, 2022, and Ukrainian grid operators have repeatedly warned that attacks on substations — the nodes that move power between regions — do more lasting damage than strikes on generation alone.

Strikes as talks open in Abu Dhabi

The timing was stark: the overnight barrage came as Russian, Ukrainian and US negotiators began two days of talks in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday aimed at a final end to the war, with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner taking part. Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the first day as productive but said a lot of work remained, and that the goal was to expand the negotiations to include Europe.

The first day of the Abu Dhabi talks ended after nearly four hours, with Kushner saying the US had 'good ideas' to bridge the gaps. Read the Abu Dhabi talks report

What happens next

Talks are due to continue for a second day on Wednesday, November 11, while Ukrainian repair crews work to restore the damaged substations. With winter approaching and outage schedules already in force, each new strike on the transmission network raises the risk of longer blackouts for millions of Ukrainians — whatever progress, or lack of it, is made around the table in Abu Dhabi.