Mass Drone, Missile Barrage Damages Ukraine Grid

Over the nights of Oct. 18–20, Russia launched large-scale aerial assaults on Ukraine using ballistic missiles (reported Iskander-M/KN-23) and dozens-to-hundreds of attack drones (many Shaheds); Ukraine’s air defences said they destroyed or jammed roughly 38–40 UAVs while others struck sites across the north, south and east. The strikes inflicted fresh damage to Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, causing outages across multiple regions and prompting industrial power restrictions from 06:00–22:00 on Oct. 20 and rolling household cuts in places such as Chernihiv. Russian regional authorities said Ukrainian drones also struck Russian territory, reporting a fire at the Gazprom-run Orenburg gas-processing plant and claiming dozens of Ukrainian UAVs were intercepted. Both sides’ tallies conflict and officials warned attacks remained ongoing as air-defence operations continued. The escalation coincided with President Volodymyr Zelensky’s trip to Washington to request more Western air-defence systems and long-range weapons, while U.S. President Donald Trump suggested Ukraine may have to cede territory for peace even as he floated providing Tomahawk missiles as leverage in negotiations.