The Ukrainian authorities warn that continued Russian destruction of energy infrastructure will lead to increasingly frequent blackouts. On 5 November, Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said that the capital, now home to around 3 million people (350,000 are internally displaced), could run out of electricity, heating and water. He appealed to residents to consider moving outside temporarily to buildings with an independent heating source and water intake. A day later, mayoral officials did not rule out evacuating the city if there was a total loss of the power system. On the same day, President Volodymyr Zelensky declared that more than 4.5 million energy consumers – mainly in Kyiv and its surroundings – had been disconnected from power. On 7 November, planned and emergency power cuts began in seven oblasts – Kyiv, Chernihiv, Cherkasy, Zhytomyr, Sumy, Kharkiv and Poltava – and the capital from the morning.

The latest Russian missile and drone attacks have focused on energy and industrial infrastructure in cities on the back of Ukrainian defences. There was damage to facilities in the Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia and eastern Vilniansk, as well as Kramatorsk and Pokrovsk in the Donetsk Oblast. Both sides continued to shell and bombard enemy positions along the line of contact, with border regions of Chernihiv and Sumy oblasts also targeted by the invaders. According to Pentagon assessments, the Ukrainian army fired 4,000–7,000 artillery rounds daily, while the Russians fired nearly 20,000.

After a few days of reduced activity in the northeastern part of the Donetsk Oblast, aggressor forces have again increased the frequency of attacks. The defenders repulsed assaults on Bakhmut and the surrounding villages and the Russians’ subsequent attempts to break through towards Siversk and north of Horlivka. The Russians have not ceased their attacks north and west of Donetsk and south and east of Vuhledar. They have also made attempts to attack Ukrainian positions east of Lyman. There were also isolated attacks in the Kharkiv Oblast bordering the Russian Federation and south of Zaporizhzhia for the first time in many months. Ukrainian units, in turn, were to make further attempts to break through enemy positions on the border of the Kharkiv Oblast and north of Kherson. The Russians would continue to expand defensive positions in the Kherson Oblast on both sides of the Dnieper, on whose right bank they were to leave 20,000–25,000 troops.

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