Poltava, Chernihiv Regions Hit Hard: Russian Drone and Missile Attacks Knock Out Power

Kremenchuk in the Poltava region suffered a massive Russian attack early Tuesday morning, Aug. 19. After the bombardment, the city was covered in thick black smoke.

Russian forces first struck the Poltava region with attack drones, targeting the districts of Lubny and Kremenchuk. At least 30 explosions were reported in Lubny.

Later, the Ukrainian Air Force reported that Russia had used Tu-95MS strategic bombers to employ ordnance from a distance, in safe airspace. At 5:08 a.m., the first cruise missiles were detected over the Kharkiv region, flying toward Poltava. By approximately 05:26, explosions were heard in Kremenchuk.

Mayor Vitaly Maletsky said that dozens of explosions had rocked the city, damaging energy and transportation infrastructure. He thanked air defense units for repelling part of the attack and the State Emergency Service (DSNS) for quickly extinguishing the fires.

“At the same time that Putin was assuring Trump on the phone that he wanted peace, and when President Volodymyr Zelensky was holding talks at the White House with European leaders about a just peace, Putin’s [military] was launching another massive attack on Kremenchuk,” he wrote on Facebook.

According to the Poltava Regional Military Administration (OVA), both hits and falling debris were recorded in the Kremenchuk and Lubny districts.

Governor Volodymyr Kohut confirmed that administrative buildings of local energy companies were damaged.

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“In the Lubny district, 1,471 households and 119 businesses lost electricity as a result of the attack. The DSNS and energy services are working to eliminate the consequences. Fortunately, there were no casualties,” Kohut said.

Ukraine’s Ministry of Energy reported that Russia attacked the energy infrastructure in the Poltava region.

“Early on Aug. 19, Russian occupation forces carried out another massive attack on energy infrastructure facilities in the Poltava region, using both cruise missiles and strike drones,” the ministry said in a Telegram post.

The ministry said several dozen drones simultaneously targeted one of the production facilities of Ukraine’s gas transportation system, causing large-scale fires.

“Damage to the facility’s ground infrastructure has been preliminarily established. Specialists are already conducting a technical inspection of the equipment and assessing the extent of the damage,” the report added.

According to the ministry, the last attacks on oil refining infrastructure were recorded on June 15 and 21. Since March, more than 2,900 attacks on energy infrastructure have been carried out.

“The Ministry of Energy calls on the international community to increase sanctions pressure on the aggressor state and provide Ukraine with additional support to protect critical infrastructure facilities,” the statement said.

Meanwhile, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported on Telegram a group strike “with long-range precision weapons, as well as strike drones on an oil refinery that supplies fuel to the Ukrainian Armed Forces in Donbas.”

“The goal of the strike was achieved; all designated facilities were hit,” the report said.

Russian media have also released footage allegedly showing a Kh-101 missile striking the Kremenchuk refinery. The video has circulated on Ukrainian social media, but Kyiv Post could not independently verify its time or location.

Meanwhile, the Chernihiv region also came under drone attack on Tuesday morning.

“Unfortunately, infrastructure was damaged. Some settlements are experiencing power outages. Energy crews and rescuers are already working on restoration,” regional governor Vyacheslav Chaus reported on Telegram.

Chaus later clarified that Russia had launched drone strikes on Nizhyn.

“Unfortunately, a 45-year-old local civilian male was killed,” he wrote.

In addition, the Chernihiv Energy Company reported that over 30,000 subscribers in the region lost electricity due to Russian shelling of energy facilities.

The outage affected the Nizhyn district, where some energy equipment was damaged.

“As a result of enemy shelling, some energy equipment in the Nizhyn district was damaged. In the morning, more than 30,000 subscribers were left without electricity,” the company said.

It added that energy workers have already restored social infrastructure facilities and developed a plan to resume electricity supply to households.

“This plan will be implemented as soon as the security situation allows,” the company said.

Russian forces attacked Ukraine beginning at 20:00 on Aug. 18, using 270 Shahed strike UAVs and drone decoys, five Iskander-M ballistic missiles, and five Kh-101 cruise missiles, according to the Ukrainian Air Force.

“As of 09:00, air defenses shot down or suppressed 236 air targets: 230 enemy Shahed UAVs and drone decoys of various types, 2 Iskander-M ballistic missiles, and 4 Kh-101 cruise missiles,” the report said.

However, impacts of four missiles and 40 UAVs on targets were recorded at 16 locations, and fragments of downed drones fell in three locations.

This news story will be updated as more information becomes available.