Ukraine: 128 Russian drones and two Kh-35 missiles in one night, with fires at critical infrastructure in Dnipropetrovsk region and a warehouse near Bucha

Ukraine came under attack overnight into Thursday, November 5, from 128 Russian strike drones and two Kh-35 guided missiles launched from the Black Sea area. Fires broke out at critical infrastructure facilities in Dnipropetrovsk region, where Dnipro and Samar were hit, while a warehouse went up in flames in the Kyiv region. Air defence shot down or electronically neutralised 105 drones, but the Ukrainian Air Force recorded strikes at 18 locations, according to its Telegram post at 08:00 Kyiv time.

The new night of strikes found the country’s energy system already badly damaged and consumers on scheduled power cuts.

The air defence tally

The tally covers the period from 18:00 on Wednesday, November 4. Of the 128 drones, 65 were jet-powered Shaheds, and the swarm also included Gerbera and “Parodiya” decoy drones. The Air Force named Oryol, Kursk, Millerovo and Primorsko-Akhtarsk in Russia, occupied Donetsk and, in Crimea, Hvardiiske and Chauda as the drones’ origins.

Fighter aircraft, anti-aircraft missile units, electronic warfare and unmanned systems, and mobile fire groups took part in the defence. Of the 105 drones downed or neutralised, 48 were jet-powered. Debris from downed targets fell at nine more locations, and at 08:00 some drones were still in the air and the fight was continuing.

Dnipro, Samar, Bucha

In Dnipropetrovsk region the regional military administration recorded nearly 20 drone attacks across six districts and 30 shootdowns over the region. In Dnipro the roof of a house and private garages caught fire. Fires also broke out at critical infrastructure facilities, though the administration did not say where. Three people were injured; doctors treated them on the spot, but they declined hospital transport.

Samar and the Novooleksandrivka community also suffered infrastructure strikes, damage to infrastructure and a business was recorded in Kamianske, and private homes were hit in Pavlohrad. Also targeted were the Nikopol area, including the Margantsi and Pokrovske communities, and the Slavhorod community.

In the Kyiv region the drones again hit supply-chain infrastructure. A warehouse fire broke out in the Bucha area. Firefighters from Bucha and other areas, with reinforcements, brought the blaze under control, and the State Emergency Service said, on preliminary data, there were no deaths. The regional administration said a man born in 1978 was injured in the right thigh and refused treatment, while the blast wave damaged a car.

In Zaporizhzhia, Governor Ivan Fedorov reported three dead and one injured around the city in 24 hours. Across the region he recorded 784 Russian strikes on 53 settlements, including 16 air strikes and 557 drone attacks, mostly FPV.

The grid at the limit

The new attack came two days after one of the largest attacks on the country’s energy system, as Ukrenergo, the operator of Ukraine’s power grid, described it. On Tuesday, November 3, the operator wrote that within 24 hours the Russians had hit energy facilities more than 20 times with an “unprecedented number of strike assets”, forcing emergency outages even in Kyiv. The next day the situation had partly stabilised, but for Thursday, November 5, Ukrenergo announced that in some regions hourly outages for two to four groups of consumers would apply all day, across all categories, along with power limits for industry.

On Wednesday the Ukrainian government decided on additional state support of 30,000 hryvnias a month for those repairing energy, utility and railway infrastructure, from November to the end of the heating season. The same announcement says Russia launches 300 to 400 drones a day at vital infrastructure and that more than 2,000 strikes have been recorded since August.

Meanwhile Volodymyr Zelensky put air defence at the top of his agenda. After an hour and a half of talks with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner on Wednesday, he wrote that missiles are needed for the Patriots and that a trilateral meeting of the negotiating teams of Ukraine, the US and Russia is being prepared in less than a week.