Russia launches massive drone barrage overnight leaving 17K Ukrainians in the dark

Russian military forces launched a blistering aerial barrage on Ukraine overnight night killing one and leaving thousands in the dark — hours after President Trump called for peace between the warring combatants.

Forces from Moscow largely targeted Ukrainian forces and infrastructure on the front lines and fired roughly 268 guided aerial bombs with each carrying a payload of 3,307 pounds, CNN reported citing the Ukrainian military.

One unidentified man was killed in the village of Zelenyi Hair, according to Ukrainian officials.

Nearly all districts in the city of Chuhuiv, located in the Kharkiv region, were cut off from the electrical grid and left completely in the dark, EuroNews reported.

One Russian strike hit an energy facility in the Koruukivka district and knocked out power to 17,000 people, according to the report.

The wave of attacks on Ukraine have been escalating, with Moscow launching an average of 180 drones every night through the month of September, CNN reported.

“Moscow has developed fresh ways of using drones to find and kill Ukrainian soldiers and to destroy Ukrainian assets, turning what was once an area of weakness into an area of strength,” long-time Russia analyst Dara Massicot wrote in the most recent issue of Foreign Affairs.

“It has built better missiles and created more rugged and capable armored systems. It is giving junior commanders more freedom to plan.”

Russia is continuing to make their slow advancement on the front lines despite President Trump urging a “combat freeze” in an effort to push forward truce talks.

At a high-profile meeting in Washington, Trump denied Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s requests for Tomahawk missiles to fight off the Russians and urged both sides to pursue a course of peace.

Zelensky said ironing out the “sensitive” issue of territory will be the toughest part of any negotiation with rival Vladimir Putin – but that achieving a cease-fire must be priority No. 1.

“Our position is that first we need ceasefire, so we need to sit and speak and to understand where we are. I think this is the most important first step,” Zelensky told reporters after his visit to the White House on Friday.

Meanwhile, heavy fighting continues in several regions, including Kharkiv and Donetsk where Russian troops were seen advancing on Saturday, CNN reported.

Russia has gained roughly 120 square miles of territory over the past four weeks, CNN reported citing the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University.

As Ukraine continues to try to ward off Russia, officials are attempting to triage the damages to its infrastructure.

Repair work has begun on off-site power lines of the nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia, which suffered an outage since a Russian attack one month ago, Reuters reported.

The plant, which is near the front lines, currently has no electricity and needs power to ensure fuel currently in reactors remains cool to prevent catastrophic meltdowns.

Officials with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN’s nuclear watchdog, commended both Ukraine and Russia after the two nations agreed on cease-fire zones to allow for critical repairs on the nuclear plant.

“Restoration of off-site power is crucial for nuclear safety and security,” the organizations wrote on X. “Both sides engaged constructively with the IAEA to enable a complex repair plan to proceed.”

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant is Europe’s largest facility featuring six reactors.