Russian missile barrage disrupts internet, customs databases in Ukraine

KYIV, UKRAINE — Kyiv and several other Ukrainian cities were plunged into near-total darkness over the weekend after Russia launched one of the largest missile and drone strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure since the start of the war, knocking out power and disrupting critical services nationwide.

Emergency blackouts lasting up to 12 hours were introduced following the attack, with Kyiv and other regions facing widespread internet and communication outages, according to internet watchdog NetBlocks. As of Monday, repairs were still underway and many regions remained without stable electricity.

Ukraine’s second-largest telecom operator, Vodafone, said on Sunday that the blackouts had forced temporary restrictions on its network. “When the power goes out, everyone immediately switches to mobile internet, which causes an extremely high load on the connection,” the company said.

The strikes also disrupted operations at Ukraine’s customs service. The State Border Guard Service said it was forced to suspend the passage of people and vehicles at the Ukrainian-Polish border for several hours on Saturday due to a technical failure in its databases.

“The failure was caused by a power outage after Russian shelling of energy facilities,” the agency said, adding that border operations resumed later that day.

Ukrainian officials said more than 450 drones and 45 cruise and ballistic missiles targeted power and gas facilities overnight on Saturday, damaging thermal power plants and substations supplying nuclear plants.

“It’s hard to recall such a number of ballistic missiles that directly hit energy facilities,” Energy Minister Svitlana Hrynchuk said.

The state-run power company Centrenergo reported catastrophic damage to several of its stations.

“Less than a month after the previous strike, the enemy hit our entire power generation system again last night. The stations are on fire! We’ve come to a complete stop. Right now, power generation is down to zero,” the company said in a statement.

Russia has repeatedly targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure since the start of its full-scale invasion, causing widespread blackouts and internet disruptions. Ukrainian officials said some of these campaigns combine missile strikes with coordinated cyberattacks.

In a September interview with Recorded Future News, Ukraine’s top cybersecurity official Oleksandr Potii said Russia would likely resume attacks on the country’s energy grid and other vital services as winter approached. “We expect them to launch conventional strikes as well as attempts to disable systems that keep critical infrastructure running,” he said.

Groups linked to the Kremlin’s military intelligence agency, the GRU — particularly the notorious hacking unit known as Sandworm — have previously conducted digital intrusions alongside kinetic strikes on the energy grid.

Research published by Slovak cybersecurity firm ESET found that between June and September, Sandworm deployed multiple data-wiping malware strains against Ukrainian entities in the energy, logistics, government, and grain sectors — part of what experts describe as Russia’s broader effort to destabilize Ukraine’s wartime economy.