Nineteen people were killed in the western Ukrainian city of Ternopil after Russia carried out a massive overnight assault using missiles and drones, Ukrainian officials said Wednesday. The strikes hit a residential tower and critical infrastructure as temperatures plunged, leaving dozens more injured and triggering emergency power cuts across multiple regions.
The attack was one of the most intense in recent months and underscored Russia’s continued push to pressure Ukraine’s energy network before winter sets in. Ukrainian authorities said Moscow launched more than 470 drones and 48 missiles during the night, targeting housing blocks as well as transport and power facilities.
Rescue teams in Ternopil worked through the morning to search for survivors after the upper floors of a multi-storey apartment building were ripped apart. Video from the scene showed black smoke rising into the sky and an orange glow from a fire burning inside the structure.
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Local officials said 66 people across the country were wounded in the wider overnight strikes. Parts of central and western Ukraine experienced emergency outages as engineers tried to contain damage to the grid. Energy authorities reported that infrastructure in seven regions had been hit.
In Lviv, a Reuters witness heard several explosions as air-raid alerts sounded. In Kyiv, residents sought shelter in metro stations during the barrage.
The scale of the attack prompted Poland, a NATO member that borders western Ukraine, to temporarily shut Rzeszow and Lublin airports in the southeast. Polish and allied aircraft were scrambled to monitor the situation and secure national airspace, according to Warsaw’s defense authorities. The airports later resumed normal operations.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who is scheduled to meet Turkish officials to discuss efforts toward restarting stalled peace talks, confirmed that residential buildings in Ternopil had been struck and warned that more people might still be trapped.
In a statement on X, he called on partners to stiffen sanctions on Moscow and speed up the delivery of air-defence missiles. “Every brazen attack against ordinary life shows that the pressure on Russia is insufficient. Effective sanctions and assistance to Ukraine can change this,” he wrote.
Ukraine has repeatedly appealed for additional missile systems and interceptors as Russia intensifies its campaign against the power grid. Earlier this month, Kyiv said its air defences were being stretched as Moscow escalated long-range attacks ahead of winter.
Russia has consistently targeted Ukraine’s energy network during cold months, a pattern documented by the UN and shown in previous waves of attacks reported by Reuters and the BBC. Ukrainian officials say repairs are ongoing but warn that repeated strikes could strain the system in the coming weeks.
