Editor’s note: This is a breaking story and will be updated regularly.

Russia carried out a mass overnight attack on multiple Ukrainian regions on Nov. 19, leaving at least 25 civilians dead and 115 injured, and causing widespread infrastructure damage and triggering emergency power outages.

Russia launched 476 drones and 48 missiles at Ukraine, including 47 cruise missiles and one ballistic missile, the Air Force reported.

Ukrainian air defenses intercepted 442 drones, 34 Kh-101 cruise missiles, and seven Kalibr cruise missiles. Meanwhile, seven missiles and 34 drones struck 14 locations, while debris from downed drones and missiles fell on six additional sites.

Oblasts in western Ukraine, including Ternopil, Khmelnytskyi, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Lviv, located over 500 kilometers (about 300 miles) from the front line and the Russian border, were affected.

The Russian attack on Ternopil killed at least 25 people, including three children, and injured 73 others, among them 15 children, according to Ukraine’s Emergency Service.

0:00/1×

Aftermath of the Russian strikes on the regional center of Ternopil, Ternopil Oblast, overnight on Nov. 19, 2025. (Ukraine’s Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko / Telegram)

Two nine-story residential buildings were damaged in the strike. In one of them, the damage extended from the third to the ninth floor, according to Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko.

A Russian Kh-101 cruise missile reportedly struck one of the residential buildings in Ternopil, Yurii Ihnat, head of the Air Force’s Communications Department, told the Kyiv24 TV channel.

Rescue workers continue search-and-recovery efforts, with people still trapped beneath the debris.

The Ternopil Oblast Military Administration also urged residents to stay indoors and keep their windows closed, warning that the level of harmful substances in the city’s air had risen to six times the normal limit following the Russian attack.

Local authorities designated Nov. 19–21 as days of mourning for the victims of the Russian attack.

“In light of the tragedy, all entertainment events in Ternopil have been canceled, and government buildings will lower their flags to half-mast,” the statement said.

Rescue workers extinguish a fire and assist civilians following a Russian attack in Ternopil, Ternopil Oblast, on Nov. 19, 2025. (Ukraine’s Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko / Telegram)

Rescue workers extinguish a fire and assist civilians following a Russian attack in Ternopil, Ternopil Oblast, on Nov. 19, 2025. (Ukraine’s Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko / Telegram)

Rescue workers extinguish a fire and assist civilians following a Russian attack in Ternopil, Ternopil Oblast, on Nov. 19, 2025. (Ukraine’s Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko / Telegram)

Around midnight local time, Russian drones attacked the city of Kharkiv, injuring at least 46 people, including two girls aged 9 and 13, according to Governor Oleh Syniehubov.

The Slobidskyi and Osnovianskyi districts were targeted, with Russian forces launching 19 Geran-2 drones. The strikes damaged a high-rise residential building, a hospital, and a school.

Aftermath of the Russian attacks on the regional center of Kharkiv, Kharkiv Oblast, overnight on Nov. 19, 2025. (Kharkiv Oblast Governor Oleh Syniehubov / Telegram)

Aftermath of the Russian attacks on the regional center of Kharkiv, Kharkiv Oblast, overnight on Nov. 19, 2025. (Kharkiv Oblast Governor Oleh Syniehubov / Telegram)

Aftermath of the Russian attacks on the regional center of Kharkiv, Kharkiv Oblast, overnight on Nov. 19, 2025. (Kharkiv Oblast Governor Oleh Syniehubov / Telegram)

Aftermath of the Russian attacks on the regional center of Kharkiv, Kharkiv Oblast, overnight on Nov. 19, 2025. (Kharkiv Oblast Governor Oleh Syniehubov / Telegram)

Aftermath of the Russian attacks on the regional center of Kharkiv, Kharkiv Oblast, overnight on Nov. 19, 2025. (Kharkiv Oblast Governor Oleh Syniehubov / Telegram)

In Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, Russian strikes injured three people, including two children, Governor Svitlana Onyshchuk reported.

A large fire was reported in Lviv and pictures posted on Telegram by Lviv City Council deputy Ihor Zinkevich, showed a huge plume of smoke across the city as the sun rose.

“Close the windows, as the air may be polluted,” he warned residents.

Lviv Mayor Andrii Sadovyi later said a warehouse storing tyres had been hit and that there were no casualties.

The Russian strike in Lviv has also destroyed a newly opened office of Ukrposhta, Ukraine’s state-owned postal service. While no employees were injured in the attack, approximately 900 parcels were destroyed, according to company CEO Igor Smelyansky.

Smelyansky added that the office would “definitely be restored,” though he did not provide a specific timeline for its reopening.

Local authorities in the Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk oblasts also reported attacks on energy and other critical infrastructure.

The Russian attack also damaged equipment at a thermal power plant operated by DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy company.

The strike occurred as temperatures dropped to -3°C (27°F) overnight.

While the company did not specify the region where the damage took place, it confirmed that this was the fifth attack on DTEK’s thermal power plants since October.

DTEK also reported that on Nov. 19, during the restoration of an energy facility in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, a Russian strike injured a team of workers. One worker is in serious condition, while the other four sustained concussions and shrapnel wounds.

In Khmelnytskyi Oblast, nearly 2,000 residents across 27 settlements were left without power due to the Russian attack, with power lines also damaged in the Shepetivka district, Governor Serhii Tiurin reported.

“Russia is again attacking our energy infrastructure. Because of this, emergency power outages have been introduced in a number of regions of Ukraine,” the Energy Ministry said.

Vitaly Zaichenko, head of Ukrenergo, Ukraine’s state-grid operator, said Russia is attacking Ukraine’s energy sector in “waves,” warning that the load on western regions will increase as a result of the recent strikes.

“Russia is launching waves of attack starting from the east, then hitting the center, and then the western part of Ukraine,” Zaichenko told the Kyiv Independent.

While this attack was smaller than previous ones in October, western Ukraine will experience “load shedding” for the first time this autumn, where power is cut to consumers to stabilize the grid, he said. But he expects it to only last one day.

Russia regularly launches large-scale attacks on Ukrainian cities and in recent months, Moscow has intensified attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure in an attempt to plunge Ukraine into another harsh winter.

“Every brazen attack on normal life (of Ukrainians) shows that the pressure on Russia is still insufficient. Effective sanctions and support for Ukraine can change that,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said, stressing Ukraine’s need for additional air defense.

“Russia must be held accountable for its actions, and we must focus on everything that strengthens us — everything that allows us to shoot down Russian missiles, neutralize Russian drones, and stop their assaults,” the president added.

Poland’s armed forces confirmed it had scrambled fighter jets in its own airspace in response to the Russian attack.

Romania also scrambled four military aircraft after detecting a Russian drone violating its airspace.

Corneliu Pavel, a spokesperson for the Romanian Defense Ministry, told Digi24 that Romanian forces had authorization to shoot down the drone but did not, as “it appeared only periodically and was only visible on radar.”

Two F-16s from the Romanian Air Force were sent to patrol the area later. The Romanian Defense Ministry reported that no aircraft crashes were detected.

Read also: Destroy. Fix. Repeat: Russia is creating a devastating doom loop inside Ukraine’s energy system


From The Kyiv Independent - News from Ukraine, Eastern Europe via this RSS feed