The Ukraine War in data: Power outages have millions of Ukrainians living in and out of the darkness

Russia’s war on Ukraine is increasingly looking like a war on infrastructure. On Monday, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians were left in the dark after a Russian missile strike hit critical energy facilities in Kyiv that power some 350,000 households. Roughly 80 percent of residents had no water either. To the east, in Kharkiv, authorities also reported blackouts and issues with the water supply due to airstrikes.

In what has become a kind of wartime game of cat and mouse, workers in the two cities — Ukraine’s largest — raced to repair the damage, but by Tuesday, 20,000 homes in Kyiv still had no power, and in Kharkiv, the power outages had shut down subways and trams. All this damage was the result of roughly 50 Russian missiles that struck Ukrainian infrastructure facilities in a single day.

Over the last few weeks, the strikes and the rush to repair have become routine for Ukrainians. About 40 percent of the country’s energy infrastructure has been taken out of commission at one point or another, and 16 regions have been affected, according to the Ukrainian government. As winter approaches, the consequences of the power and water shortages will only grow.

The Ukrainian energy agency has implemented scheduled power cuts to make up for the losses, and Ukrainians have cut their usage by 40 percent.

Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, CEO of Ukrenergo, said the situation is critical and that “virtually all” large non-nuclear power stations in Ukraine had been hit. According to Oleksiy Kuleba, head of the Kyiv regional military, the capital may be left completely in the dark if the attacks don’t stop.

We offer a more comprehensive set of data points on the war in Ukraine below. Grid originally published this document on March 24. We update it every Thursday to provide a fuller picture of the conflict.

Civilians killed: at least 6,400 (probably thousands more)

On June 7, a Ukrainian official said at least 40,000 Ukrainian civilians had been killed or wounded since the war began. The official offered no breakdown of dead versus wounded civilians. The United Nations’ latest estimate of civilians killed is over 6,400, but it consistently notes the figure is an underestimate, as is its estimate of total casualties — a combination of deaths and injuries — given as over 16,000. (Updated Nov. 2; source, source.)

Ukrainian soldiers killed: 5,500 to 11,000

Top advisers to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy estimated in June that 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed since the war began. Meanwhile, on Aug. 22, Gen. Valeriy Zaluzhny, Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, said the country had lost about 9,000 troops. In mid-April, U.S. intelligence officials put the number at 5,500 to 11,000 Ukrainian soldiers killed since the invasion. On June 10, an adviser to Zelenskyy said Ukraine was losing as many as 200 soldiers each day. (Updated Aug. 24; source, source, source.)

Russian soldiers killed: 5,937 to over 73,000

From the early days of the war, casualty counts for Russian soldiers have varied widely — depending on the source. Ukraine raised its estimate of Russian soldiers killed in the conflict to more than 73,000 on Wednesday. These numbers have been updated frequently through the Facebook page for the country’s General Staff of the Armed Forces. In its first update on casualties since March, Russia claimed in late September that there had been 5,937 Russian military deaths. Kremlin spokesman Dimitry Peskov said in April that there had been “significant losses of troops, and it’s a huge tragedy for us.”

Russia has also suffered a high rate of casualties among senior officers. Thirteen Russian generals have been killed, according to Ukrainian authorities; the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency puts the figure at between eight and 10. Grid’s Tom Nagorski and Joshua Keating previously reported on the possible explanations for this “inconceivable” toll: poor communications and command-and-control structures within the Russian military. (Updated Nov. 2; source.)

Total displaced Ukrainians: approximately 14 million

There are more than 7.7 million Ukrainian refugees currently reported in other European countries. United Nations data indicates more than 14 million Ukrainians have crossed the border since the start of the war, but millions have returned home, largely from Poland, as Nikhil Kumar and Kseniia Lisnycha reported. In early October, the International Organization for Migration’s latest survey of internally displaced Ukrainians found more Ukrainians returning home from within Ukraine, but more than 6 million remained displaced within their own country. (Updated Nov. 2; source; source.)

Internally displaced Ukrainians: more than 6.2 million

An overview of the violence

Global food markets: Wheat prices down 11 percent after an initial spike

Recent Grid coverage

• Russia’s war in Ukraine is driving a rush for renewables — and for coal. Here’s what that means for the planet. (Nov. 1)
• Ksenia Sobchak is a megastar with close ties to Vladimir Putin. Why did she just flee Russia? (Oct. 28)
• Putin speech: Russia won’t use nukes, the West started the war, and its ‘cancel culture’ is like Nazi Germany (Oct. 27)
• Germany is spending $200 billion to fight Putin’s energy squeeze. Will it end up dividing Europe? (Oct. 26)
• In Russia’s war against Ukraine, are ‘a coup or a nuke’ the only endgames left? (Oct. 24)
• Russia is trying to steal Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. Experts doubt Putin can really pull it off. (Oct. 18)

Learn more: Grid’s 360s on the Ukraine War

• 360: What led to Europe’s worst refugee crisis since World War II
• 360: Casualty of war in Ukraine: The global food supply
• 360: War in Ukraine: How we got here — and what may come next
• 360: Russia’s billionaires: Who they are, what they own — and can they influence Vladimir Putin?
• 360: Why danger still looms at Ukraine’s nuclear power plants