310 drones, 272 stopped, 19 places hit, and the water came back by morning

Russia launched 310 strike and decoy drones at Ukraine between 18:00 on Tuesday and Wednesday morning (Kyiv time), Ukraine’s Air Force said¹. Among them were 81 jet-powered Shaheds¹. By 08:00 Kyiv time, air defences had shot down or neutralised 272, including 64 of the jet-powered ones¹. Drones still struck 19 locations, and debris fell at 15 more¹. Desk arithmetic: 272 of 310 is about 88%; 38 got through or went unaccounted for, and 17 of those were jet-powered.

The targets were the grid. Energy sites were hit in Zhytomyr, Ternopil and around Rivne; most of Kovel lost electricity; two men were injured at an industrial site in Dnipro¹. By morning the energy ministry reported people without power in Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr, Zaporizhzhia, Kirovohrad, Kharkiv and Kherson oblasts, with emergency blackouts across Kyiv and the surrounding region for a second day². Ukraine’s nuclear plants are running at reduced capacity until the damaged networks are repaired, and DTEK said on Tuesday that a massive missile and drone barrage had stopped generation at three of its thermal plants².

Then the dull machinery started. Kyiv’s water, lost on Tuesday, was partly restored on Wednesday morning². Kovel’s water utility switched to backup power and published hours when taps would run¹. Zhytomyr announced warming points, where residents can heat up, charge phones and get online, would open at 09:00 if power was not back¹. “Repair crews are working around the clock,” the ministry said².

The air-defence arithmetic is the strained part. Zelenskyy said in Berlin on Tuesday that Ukraine has “great difficulties in air defence”, citing a major shortage of PAC-2, PAC-3 and IRIS-T missiles, bne IntelliNews reports³. He wants an energy ceasefire on both sides as a first aim for the Abu Dhabi talks on 10–11 November³.

For you, the lesson is not drama but logistics. A country that publishes outage schedules, keeps backup pumps fuelled and tells residents where the warm rooms are is a country still functioning under fire. Speeches about peace come next week. The repair rota came this morning.