Russia fires 332 drones and a salvo of missiles at Ukraine overnight, killing seven people and wounding about 90 across fifteen sites

The attack came in waves, in the dark, and it was aimed at the grid before winter.

Ukraine said Russia launched 332 drones overnight, among them jet powered attack drones, together with ballistic missiles of the Iskander M and North Korean KN 23 type and cruise missiles. The air force said 289 drones were shot down. Missiles and drones struck 22 locations and debris fell in three more. The Energy Ministry said attacks overnight and on the morning of October 17 left some homes without power.

The human count was spread across the map. Regional authorities said seven people were killed and about 90 wounded over the past day, as of October 17. In Kharkiv region a man of 58 and a woman of 71 were killed, and 41 people were wounded or suffered from stress, among them three children, Governor Oleh Syniehubov said. In Donetsk region two people were killed in Kramatorsk and fifteen were wounded across the region. Near Nikopol in Dnipropetrovsk region a woman of 74 was killed and two men wounded, and a man was killed in Dnipro when Russian forces struck an industrial site. Four women and three men were wounded in Sumy region. In Vinnytsia region, in central Ukraine, the governor called the assault one of the largest on the region since the full scale invasion began. It targeted civilian and critical infrastructure, and six people were wounded. In Odesa region in the south, at least four people were wounded in strikes on civilian infrastructure.

None of this is a change of pattern. It is the pattern, run at larger scale. Russia has spent the autumn working over Ukrainian energy sites so that damage done now is still unrepaired when the cold arrives, and each big night consumes interceptors Ukraine has already said it does not have. On Thursday a source told CNN that Ukraine had run out of Patriot missiles, the one system that reliably stops a ballistic missile. Kyiv asked European leaders in Brussels on Friday for 300 more interceptors and at least 70 billion euros for defence next year.

President Zelensky, writing after Washington waived the new Russia sanctions on Friday, said Russia is trying to leave millions of people without electricity and heating and that pressure is what stops it. On the evidence of Saturday morning, the pressure went the other way on Friday, and the drones went up on Friday night.