Bombardment across nine Ukrainian regions knocked out electricity for hundreds of thousands of households and left at least 15 people with injuries, officials stated Friday, as a separately published report pointed to a documented rise in civilian harm tied to the armed conflict.
Additional air strikes hit residential and civilian areas as questions mounted over whether a recent rupture in talks between Kyiv and Washington might reduce the flow of outside military support to Ukrainian troops at a time when Russian bombardments have been picking up and winter approaches.
On Friday, the top military commander briefed Putin on the forces and equipment set aside to sustain the air campaign targeting Ukraine's power infrastructure. Strikes on Ukraine's energy infrastructure ahead of winter have become a recurring pattern in the conflict, with analysts noting the tactic appears designed to pressure the civilian population by cutting off heating and water supplies.
Kyiv has put out an alert that Moscow is building up a stockpile of ballistic missiles ahead of anticipated strikes over the next several months. Ukraine ended its brief moratorium on attacking energy infrastructure on Thursday, after officials there determined that Russia had not honoured the pause that followed a ceasefire appeal from Trump. No agreement on the conditions of an energy ceasefire had been reached, according to a statement from Moscow.
Zelensky joined fellow EU heads of state on Friday at a gathering where the conflict with Russia and broader security concerns across the continent were among the central topics on the table. Zelensky received a standing ovation from assembled leaders upon entering the room, with those present pledging continued backing for Ukraine and calling on the US to apply pressure on Putin.
At a Friday appearance before the military command overseeing the Ukraine theatre, Putin outlined territorial advances his forces had made and described bringing the Ukrainian-held portion of Donetsk under Russian control as an ongoing objective. Orders were also passed down to keep the air campaign running.
Gerasimov, who holds the position of Chief of the General Staff, told reporters that a wave of strikes had been carried out against Ukrainian power infrastructure, adding that the capacity to continue targeting such facilities remained in place. Strikes targeting Ukrainian bridges, rail networks, and data centres are set to persist, he stated. Reported targets have included not only electrical infrastructure but also residential blocks, transit networks, cargo vessels, data facilities, and food retail outlets.
Figures compiled by the UN human rights office and published that Friday placed the number of civilians killed during the preceding month at no fewer than 328, with roughly 2,105 others wounded — a combined toll running 85 percent higher than the equivalent period twelve months earlier — while the same document recorded that attacks in October had by then already claimed the lives of dozens of civilians, children among them. Danielle Bell, who heads the office, characterised the first two weeks of October as one of the deadliest intervals for civilian populations in recent memory.
