Power outages in Ukraine after Russia’s largest drone attack to date | Ukraine

Russia launched its largest-ever drone attack on Ukraine on Monday evening and Tuesday morning, sending a reported 188 drones into the country against various targets, resulting in power outages in parts of western Ukraine and damage to residential buildings outside Kiev.

Russian forces are pushing hard along the front line in the east of the country, amid uncertainty about how the dynamics of the war may change when Donald Trump takes office in January. Russia also promised “retaliatory actions” for new Ukrainian attacks on military targets inside Russia that used long-range missiles sent by the United States.

Ukraine’s air force said 76 of the drones had been shot down overnight as the air force struggled to cope with the mass attacks that have become common in recent weeks. “Unfortunately, there were hits to critical infrastructure facilities and private and apartment buildings were damaged in several regions due to the massive drone strike,” the Air Force said in a statement.

The governor of the western Ternopil region, Vyacheslav Nehoda, said on television that about 70% of the region was without power. “The consequences are bad because the plant was significantly affected and this will affect the power supply in the whole region for a long time,” he said. Several buildings were damaged around Kiev, but there were no injuries.

Also on Tuesday, a court in the Russian city of Kursk confirmed that a British national had been caught and detained by Russian authorities, the first official confirmation of news that broke over the weekend when interrogation videos appeared on Russian Telegram channels.

The court ordered that James Scott Rhys Anderson, 22, be held in custody on allegations that he had “participated in armed hostilities on the territory of the Kursk region”. It did not specify the exact charges, noting only that he was accused of “committing a number of particularly serious offenses which constitute a danger to society”.

Russian military bloggers said Anderson was captured near the village of Plekhovo, taking part in Ukraine’s military offensive inside Russia that began in late summer. Russian forces are now on the offensive in the Kursk region, trying to regain control of the lost territory.

In a video that emerged over the weekend, a man in military fatigues, with his hands tied, gave his name as Anderson and said he had served in the British Army between 2019 and 2023 before being discharged and then deciding to travel to Ukraine and volunteer.

The Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, said on Monday that he was aware of the arrest and that authorities would “offer this British national all the support we can”.

Earlier this month, the US authorized Ukraine to attack military targets deep inside Russia using US-supplied Atacms missiles in support of its Kursk offensive. Britain followed suit and allowed the use of Storm Shadow missiles in Russia.

On Tuesday, Bloomberg reported that Britain had sent “dozens” of Storm Shadows to Ukraine recently, the first delivery since Keir Starmer took over as prime minister in July. A spokesman for the Ministry of Defense declined to comment on the report. “We do not comment on operational details, to do so would only benefit Putin,” the spokesman said, adding that Britain’s support for Ukraine is “ironclad”.

Moscow has reacted furiously to the decision to allow strikes on targets inside Russia, with President Vladimir Putin saying it amounted to a declaration of war against Russia and gave Moscow the right to strike targets in the countries that supplied the weapons.

The Russian Defense Ministry said Ukraine had launched additional attacks using Atacms on targets that include an air base in the Kursk region and an air defense battery, causing an unspecified number of casualties and damage to equipment. It was a rare admission by Moscow that Ukrainian strikes had successfully hit their targets.

“Retaliations are being prepared,” the ministry said in a post on Telegram, without giving further details. The first attack by Atacms led to Russia using an experimental ballistic missile against the city of Dnipro last week and a response from Putin suggesting nuclear options were on the table.

Both sides are seeking to position themselves ahead of the return of Trump, who has claimed he will be able to bring about a resolution to the conflict in “24 hours”, while giving few details on how he would go about it.

Ukraine’s allies are also in heated discussions about how best to continue supporting Kiev amid a possible shift in US policy. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, who met Trump in Florida over the weekend, said on Tuesday that NATO allies needed to do more to help Kiev. “Our support for Ukraine has kept them in the fight, but we need to go further to change the trajectory of the conflict,” he said during a visit to Athens.

Rutte highlighted the importance of strengthening the bloc’s “deterrence and defense” and said it was also crucial that investment and production in the arms industry were put into action.

“By pursuing its illegal war in Ukraine, Russia is using North Korean weapons and troops, Iranian drones and Chinese dual-use goods for its defense industry. This is a dangerous expansion of the war and a challenge to global peace and security,” he said.