Russian strikes kill at least 8 in Ukraine and cut power to more than 1 million, officials say

Russian attacks killed at least eight people and injured 60 across Ukraine on Friday, Oct. 16, Ukrainian officials said. Strikes hit nine regions, struck two shopping centres and cut electricity to more than a million people.

The Ukrainian Energy Ministry said repair crews restored power to more than a million of those customers by the end of the day. It has not said how many remain without service.

Where the strikes landed

In Kharkiv, a 71-year-old woman and a 58-year-old man were killed and 12 people wounded in attacks on three districts, Governor Oleh Syniehubov said. He had first put the toll at three.

Two people died in Kramatorsk in the Donetsk region. Two more were killed in the Dnipropetrovsk region.

In Volyn, on the Polish border, a drone strike on a food-processing facility killed one person and wounded eight, Governor Roman Romaniuk said. Drones also hit a customs terminal and set about 10 trucks on fire in Kovel, a town on the main road from Kyiv to Poland.

In Rivne, drones hit a major shopping centre and other sites, killing one and wounding seven, Governor Oleksandr Koval said. A shopping centre in Sumy, near the front line, was also hit. Emergency services released photos from Sumy showing blood on the floor and a damaged entrance.

Further strikes through the evening injured nine more people, officials said.

The grid

Romaniuk said 370,000 people in Volyn lost power Friday morning. Supply returned to about 100,000 of them later in the day. Lutsk Mayor Andriy Razumovskyi said the blackout in the regional capital could last at least 24 hours.

Large parts of Rivne city and the surrounding area were also dark after strikes on energy infrastructure there.

Russia's military chief told President Vladimir Putin on Friday that the military had allocated the assets needed to press its aerial campaign against Ukraine's energy system.

The ceasefire that wasn't

On Oct. 11, President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social that "effective immediately, there is an energy ceasefire in the War between Russia and Ukraine" and that "both parties have agreed."

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian jet-powered Shahed drones were already in Ukrainian skies at that moment. He said Russia struck a power plant in Kharkiv right after the post.

On Oct. 14, Zelenskyy said Russia fired 39 ballistic missiles and 120 attack drones overnight at energy and critical infrastructure in Kyiv, the Kyiv region and Kharkiv. He said 26 power facilities and four oil and gas sites were significantly damaged, and that around 600,000 people lost power. He called it a strike on the very infrastructure the ceasefire was supposed to cover and urged allies to respond with strong sanctions.

Moscow has given a different account of its targets. The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed strikes on communications and energy infrastructure in the Kyiv and Kharkiv areas. According to the state news agency TASS, the ministry said the facilities supported Ukraine's military industry and armed forces.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said on Oct. 13 that there were no new developments on Moscow's end.

Ukraine has its own campaign against Russian energy and logistics sites, including oil refineries. Zelenskyy said Oct. 12 that Kyiv is "ready to respect an energy ceasefire if Russia is ready to do the same," adding "we agree if they agree." He said that if Russia wants Ukraine to stop long-range strikes on its refineries and oil exports, it must stop hitting Ukraine's energy system and critical infrastructure.

Civilian toll climbing

The United Nations said Friday that civilian casualties have risen steeply. UN human rights monitors recorded at least 328 civilians killed and 2,105 wounded in September, 85 percent more than in September 2025.

From January through September 2026, 2,570 civilians were killed and 15,211 wounded. That is almost 60 percent more than the same period last year and more than double the 2024 level, the UN report said.

"The first two weeks of October were among the deadliest periods for civilians in years," said Danielle Bell, head of the UN's human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine.

Friday's strikes on malls and a border-road customs terminal fit that pattern. Reuters described the shopping-centre hits as the latest in a spate of Russian assaults on malls and markets.

What is unresolved

Trump says both sides agreed to an energy ceasefire. Zelenskyy says Ukraine will honor one if Russia does. The Kremlin has announced no change in its position, and its military chief told Putin on Friday that the assets for the energy campaign are in place.

Whether Moscow publicly commits to the ceasefire Trump announced, and whether Ukraine halts its refinery strikes in return, will decide if Lutsk and Rivne are the last blackouts of this round or the start of the next.