Russia launched 227 attack drones against Ukraine in a single overnight raid that began at 6pm on Thursday, Ukraine's Air Force reported on Friday morning. By 8am, air defence forces had shot down or suppressed 196 of them, while about 15 were still in the air and the attack was still under way, the Air Force said via its Telegram channel, as reported by NV and UATV.

Source: NV / UATV (Ukraine Air Force)

The mix mattered as much as the numbers: 86 of the drones were jet-powered variants that fly considerably faster than the propeller-driven Shahed-type drones the campaign was built around, alongside Gerbera drones and Parodiya decoys designed to saturate the air-defence network. The drones were launched from Orel, Kursk, Millerovo and Primorsko-Akhtarsk in Russia, and from occupied Donetsk and from Hvardiiske and Cape Chauda in Crimea, the Air Force said.

Power cut in seven regions

The electricity grid was once again the principal target. Deputy Energy Minister Artem Nekrasov said on Friday that the strikes caused new power outages in seven regions, among them Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia, with the situation most difficult around the capital, where heavy damage forced utility workers to keep restricting the network, NV reported.

Source: NV (Energy Ministry)

Drones struck 14 locations and debris from intercepted drones fell at eight more, according to the Air Force. An energy facility was reportedly struck in Bila Tserkva, in Kyiv oblast. Regional officials reported damage to energy facilities in two districts of the Kyiv region and three people injured in a third, where a fire destroyed a private house, while strikes on five districts of Dnipropetrovsk region damaged homes, storage facilities and a sports complex.

The barrage landed hours after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had warned that Russia was preparing new strikes on Ukraine's energy system and on Dnipro bridges — the warning Awaaz Punjab reported earlier on Friday, now followed by the attack itself. Read more: Zelenskyy warns of new Russian strikes on energy and Dnipro bridges

A winter pattern, days before Abu Dhabi talks

The raid came only days after Russia fired more than 60 missiles and 289 drones at Ukraine overnight into November 3, and in the same week that rescuers in Komyshuvakha, in the Zaporizhzhia region, raised the death toll from Monday's strike on a humanitarian aid distribution point to 53. Zelenskyy has said no power plant in Ukraine has gone undamaged by Russian attacks, according to prior NV reporting — and each new barrage lands on a grid with less left to repair as winter approaches.

Ukraine struck back the same night: its drones hit the Afipsky oil refinery area in Russia's Krasnodar region, where the regional operational headquarters said falling debris started a fire at an enterprise in the settlement. Russia's Defence Ministry claimed 142 Ukrainian drones were intercepted overnight over nine regions and the Black and Azov seas — a Russian official claim that has not been independently verified.

Source: Krasnodar regional headquarters via reports

Awaaz Punjab covered the Afipsky strike separately on Friday — the refinery fire is the other half of the same night's drone war. Read more: Ukrainian drones strike Afipsky oil refinery

What happens next is already scheduled: US-mediated talks between Russia and Ukraine are expected in Abu Dhabi on November 10-11. Between now and then, Ukraine's grid crews will be racing to restore power in seven regions — knowing, on this week's evidence, that the next barrage is likely being prepared before the talks even open.