Mass blackouts hit occupied Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhya oblasts

Reports indicate that a massive fire erupted at the thermal power plant (TPP) immediately following the uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) impact.

Local communication channels began issuing warnings regarding active drone threats as early as 9 p.m. on Aug. 27. Around midnight, widespread reports of emergency power outages began surfacing across the occupied areas of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhya oblasts.

Russian occupation authorities did not officially comment on the electrical grid failure. According to Astra, emergency crews began partially restoring power to select districts at approximately 4 a.m.

On Aug. 22, Commander of the Uncrewed Systems Forces (USF) Robert Brovdi reported that over a six-day span beginning Aug. 17, his units successfully struck 27 critical energy nodes across occupied Crimea and southern temporarily occupied territories of mainland Ukraine.

Brovdi also confirmed that Ukrainian forces disabled a total of 267 Russian military and strategic energy nodes between July 1 and Aug. 28 as part of the targeted Crimean Circuit Breaker Off operation.