‘Half of Kyiv without electricity’ — 2 killed, 38 injured in ‘serious’ Russian attack

Russia launched a mass missile and drone attack against Kyiv overnight on Nov. 29, killing two people and injuring 38 others, including a child, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service reported.

Kyiv Independent journalists on the ground reported hearing explosions and seeing drones shortly after 1 a.m. local time as authorities warned of a combined drone and missile attack. Explosions were heard throughout the night amid the hours-long attack.

Air raid alerts were activated across the entire country early in the overnight hours as Russia launched dozens of missiles and hundreds of drones towards the capital.

Renewed attacks on Kyiv came around 7 a.m. local time, when Russian forces again launched dozens of missiles, including Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, towards Kyiv.

Ukraine’s Air Force said Russia launched 596 Shahed-type attack and decoy drones and 36 missiles of various types overnight. Air defenses intercepted 558 drones and 19 missiles.

Search and rescue operations concluded on the evening of Nov. 29, with a total of two dead and 38 injured, including one child.  

Damage was reported at at least six locations across Kyiv, including to multi-story residential buildings, in the Sviatoshynskyi, Dniprovskyi, Darnytskyi, Shevchenkivskyi, and Solomyanskyi districts of the city, local officials reported.

Victor Mazepa, a Kyiv resident, told the Kyiv Independent that his wife and child were in a shelter during the attack, while he was in the bathroom when a Russian drone struck near their apartment.

“Here is my car. Was. But everyone is alive — that’s the main thing,” he said, pointing to the burned-out vehicle.

In the Dniprovskyi and Shevchenkivskyi districts, several apartments were destroyed in the upper floors of the buildings, while damage was reported between the 1st and 3rd floors of the high-rise buildings in the Sviatoshynskyi and Solomyanskyi districts.

Fires were reported in at least six apartment buildings across the city.

A deceased male victim was pulled from rubble following a Russian attack on the Sviatoshynskyi district of the city, Kyiv Oblast Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko reported.

At least 17 of the injured victims have been hospitalized following the attack, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko wrote on Telegram. A child was injured in the Shevchenkivskyi district, according to Tkachenko.

Oleksandr, a Kyiv resident, told the Kyiv Independent that he and his family went to a metro station well before the explosions to take shelter, sensing the attack would be severe.

“When it started, it was obvious right away that this would be a serious attack,” he said.

“We’ve been spending nights in the subway almost since 2022… but today it was very loud, and the station was packed with people.”

Following a renewed attack at 7 a.m., Kyiv Independent journalists reported power outages in several parts of the city.

Mayor Klitschko later said that the western part of the city had no electricity, adding that emergency crews are working to restore the power supply. Klitschko also said that reduced water pressure was affecting residential buildings on the right bank of the capital.

Vitaliy Zaichenko, CEO of Ukrainian state grid operator Ukrenergo, told the Kyiv Independent that “transmission lines were damaged and almost half of Kyiv is without electricity.”

Later in the day, Ukraine’s largest private energy company, DTEK, said it had restored electricity to more than 360,000 households in Kyiv following the attack.

The company said its crews were continuing repair work “to restore power across all of Kyiv and the region as quickly as possible.”

On the outskirts of the city, in Kyiv Oblast, at least two people were injured as a result of the wider attack. A nine-story apartment building was damaged in strikes on the city of Brovary, Regional Governor Mykola Kalyshnyk said.

Several homes in Kyiv Oblast, as well as 20 garages, were damaged in the attack, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service reported.

Russia regularly attacks cities across Ukraine, often targeting civilian infrastructure and resulting in civilian casualties.

Just days ago, a mass Russian strike on Kyiv killed seven people and injured another 20.

Warnings about the latest attack began circulating in Kyiv even before the city’s air raid sirens went off, prompting some residents to head to shelters ahead of time.

A Kyiv Independent journalist who spent the night in a shelter in Kyiv’s Podil district reported that by around 11 p.m., many residents had already arrived, well before the drones struck.

The shelter, located in an underground parking lot, was crowded but organized. People slept on benches, inflatable mats, and even brought tents. Some came with their pets, including cats and dogs.

By the time the first explosions from the missile and drone attack began, many had already dozed off.

“There is good sound insulation here, and we come so that my children don’t hear the explosions. It’s quieter here than at home on the 8th floor of an apartment building,” Saliy Olesia, a 41-year-old woman, told the Kyiv Independent.

Saliy said that her family came to the shelter twice during the night. The second time, they came back after reports that over 100 drones were heading to Kyiv.

While talking, Saliy was holding a toy dog. She said that since this summer, she has been going to the shelter more often and added that she feels heavy after each attack because of the “emotional waves.”

“This feeling is difficult to describe to foreigners… The main thing is that this never happens again anywhere else.”

In another corner of the shelter, a family who had packed their belongings to leave around 8 a.m. was forced to stay longer due to the missile alert.

“We take the attacks very seriously because a few weeks ago a Shahed-type drone flew into our yard,” Olena Halushka, who was sheltering there, said.

“And a bomb,” her five-year-old son added.

“You can bring your bike here and drink water. It’s like being in an apartment where you can’t eat,” he said.

Halushka, head of the International Centre for Ukrainian Victory (ICUV), recently shared her thoughts on the U.S.-proposed peace plan.

“In my opinion, the peace plan has just arrived. We need to look at the numbers (of drones and missiles) to see how many messages of the peace plan Russia has sent us today. So why don’t the Americans see this? Why don’t the Belgians see this?” she added.