Zaporizhzhia Offline Seven Days After Drone Barrage

Russian forces launched massive drone-and-missile barrages at Ukraine’s energy infrastructure; Ukraine’s air force reported 381 drones and 35 missiles on Friday and a further 109 drones and three ballistic missiles overnight, damaging facilities near Chernihiv, causing blackouts for about 50,000 households and hitting state natural-gas facilities. The assaults knocked out power to the Chernobyl site for more than three hours after some 20+ Shahed drones struck Slavutych and have left the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant disconnected from the grid for seven days, forcing reliance on emergency diesel generators. Nuclear safety experts and Ukrainian officials warned the situation is “extremely fragile,” saying one backup generator has already failed and raising fears for cooling systems and radiation monitoring. Kyiv accused Moscow of deliberately creating the risk of radiation incidents and of seeking to “weaponize winter” by degrading power and public morale, while criticizing the IAEA’s response. The bombardment also produced civilian casualties: a daytime drone strike on Dnipro killed one person and injured dozens, and an overnight strike in Sumy’s Krasnopillia area destroyed a home and killed a family of four.