One person has died in Russia after a Ukraine drone attack, Sky News reports, as emergency workers are struck by Moscow in a separate incident in southern Ukraine. A man operating a tractor in the Kursk region of western Russia was killed, while a Russian drone struck rescue crews working at the site of a previous attack in southern Ukraine, Sky News says.
The man killed in Kursk was 40 years old, and the regional governor, Alexander Khinshtein, said he was operating a tractor when he was hit by a Ukrainian drone, according to Sky News. On the same day, a Russian drone struck emergency workers on rescue missions in the village of Komyshuvakha, near the frontline in the Zaporizhzhia region, hitting a former school and nearby shelter where rescue operations have been under way for seven days, Sky News reports. No one was injured in Sunday’s strike on Komyshuvakha, but specialised rescue equipment was damaged, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said.
Rescue crews under fire
Komyshuvakha is the same area where at least 55 people died on the previous Monday after multiple Russian guided bombs struck as people waited for humanitarian aid, authorities said, as reported by Sky News. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on social media that Moscow hit the village with an FPV drone where emergency rescue operations had been underway for seven days following an aerial bomb strike that killed 55 people, and added that more people may still be under the rubble. Around 50 people were still listed as missing from Monday’s attack, Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, HUR, said, and many bodies recovered have not been identified.
The incident fits a pattern that Ukraine has often raised since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, Sky News notes: accusations that Moscow launches multiple strikes at the same site in quick succession to target emergency crews responding to an initial attack. Residents’ accounts reported by Sky News underline the human cost, with Mykola Krasnov, 72, saying he was still looking for his wife, who went to get humanitarian aid when a three-ton bomb was dropped. Russia said in response that its strikes hit three cargo vessels carrying military goods for Ukraine and two electricity substations supplying power to the Ukrainian defence industry, claims that Reuters was unable to independently verify, Sky News reports.
Energy, nuclear power and talks
Sky News also reports that a Russian attack on energy infrastructure in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region left more than 600,000 people without power, with other regions also facing outages, and that the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant lost its external electricity supply after a damaged power line was disconnected for safety, leaving it powered by backup diesel generators. Europeans will take part in US-mediated talks on Ukraine in Abu Dhabi next week, France’s foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot told RTL, with negotiators from Russia, Ukraine and the US due to meet on Tuesday in the capital of the United Arab Emirates, Sky News says.
Why it matters for the UK
For the UK, the story matters because Britain is one of Ukraine’s most committed supporters in Europe, and the Abu Dhabi talks will be watched closely in London for any sign of a path towards ending the war. The targeting of rescue workers and the strikes on energy infrastructure also raise questions about the protection of civilians and the pressure on Ukraine’s power system as winter approaches, issues that shape UK policy on humanitarian aid, energy support and military assistance. The involvement of European ministers in the talks underscores that any settlement will need European buy-in, and the UK has consistently pressed for a deal that respects Ukraine’s sovereignty.
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Why it matters
Sky News’ report shows the war’s two-sided drone campaign in a single day: a Ukrainian drone killing a civilian in Kursk, and a Russian drone hitting the rescuers searching for survivors in Zaporizhzhia. The loss of external power to the Zaporizhzhia plant and the large-scale blackouts in Dnipropetrovsk show how the conflict keeps reaching beyond the frontline into civilian infrastructure.
What happens next
The rescue effort in Komyshuvakha will continue, with identification work and DNA analysis under way for the unidentified dead, and authorities in Kursk will investigate the drone attack that killed the tractor driver. The Abu Dhabi talks on Tuesday are the next major diplomatic test, and their outcome will shape European and UK policy in the weeks ahead, even as the fighting continues on the ground.
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