Russia sends 289 drones, 59 cruise missiles plus ballistic and Zircon missiles at Ukraine's grid in one night; Air Force reports 309 neutralised and impacts at 23 locations

120 jet drones launched alongside ballistic and cruise missiles

In the Air Force's breakdown, the 289 drones comprised Shahed-type craft (120 of them jet-powered), Gerberas and 'Parodiya' decoys; the 59 cruise missiles were Kh-101, Kh-59, Kh-69 and Iskander-K. The count of ballistic and Zircon missiles was left out of the Air Force statement; a Ukrainian outlet citing Espreso TV put the ballistic figure at 17. Neutralisations were 257 drones (89 jet-powered), 49 cruise missiles (three under clarification) and three ballistic or Zircon missiles; Interfax-Ukraine computed interception rates of 89% for drones and 83% for cruise missiles.

Launch points were given as Rostov, Voronezh and Kursk for ballistic missiles, Vologda, Orenburg and Oryol for cruise missiles, and Oryol, Kursk, Millerovo, Primorsko-Akhtarsk, occupied Donetsk and Hvardiiske and Chauda in Crimea for drones, with the main axes toward Kyiv, Kharkiv, Vinnytsia and Dnipropetrovsk regions. Which ballistic missiles penetrated the defences and where they struck was left unstated. All figures are Ukrainian claims with limited independent verification.

Targets shift to the grid and substations around nuclear plants

DTEK said three of its thermal power plants were hit and halted generation, and the Energy Ministry counted more than twenty attacks on energy facilities in ten regions within 24 hours. Kyiv's mayor Vitali Klitschko ordered emergency outages in the city and region 'due to damage caused by enemy attacks on facilities of the Kyiv regional energy hub,' with water supply and electric transport also disrupted. Ukrenergo CEO Vitalii Zaichenko told the Kyiv Independent that the attack included one of the largest waves of Russian ballistic missiles against critical infrastructure, and a substation critical to a nuclear plant was reported hit.

President Zelensky said Russia had changed tactics this year to target transmission and distribution networks as well as generation, and told the Berlin Security Conference that 'no European country can single-handedly defend its airspace against the number of ballistic missiles' and 'no country can build an effective drone defense system on its own.' Prime Minister Shmyhal stressed the threat to nuclear safety across Europe and asked partners for an additional €450 million on top of the roughly €800 million in the Energy Support Fund. On 2 November, an aid distribution point in Komyshuvakha, Zaporizhzhia region, was hit by successive aerial bombs; by 3 November, 31 deaths and about 50 missing were reported.

Daytime waves nine-tenths jet-powered; the defence load stays uneven

Launches continued after the night wave. The Air Force said that between 06:30 and 19:00 on 3 November, 81 drones arrived, 74 of them jet-powered, and 62 (56 jet-powered) were shot down or neutralised. Together with the 193 drones of the night of 1–2 November (75 jet-powered) and the 171 of the daytime on 2 November (about 60% jet-powered), the pattern is that Russia mixes large numbers of piston-engined craft and decoys at night and leads with jets by day, probing the defenders' capacity against fast targets. Interception rates for jet drones were 74% at night and 76% by day, below the overall figures that include propeller types.