New Russian Jet-Drone Warhead May Target Strategic Power Lines as Kyiv Faces Outages

Editor’s note: This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.

Kyiv introduced emergency power outages on September 30 as Ukrainian air defenses responded to a Russian aerial attack, while a Ukrainian defense technology adviser reported the first use of a specialized warhead designed to damage high-voltage infrastructure.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko announced at 15:02 that air defense forces were operating in the capital and urged residents to remain in shelters. At 16:56, Ukraine’s Air Force reported a jet-powered UAV flying past Kozyn toward Kyiv.

At 17:40, Ukrainian energy company DTEK announced that emergency power cuts had been introduced in Kyiv on Ukrenergo’s instructions. The company noted that regular outage schedules do not apply during emergency restrictions.

Shortly afterward, Serhii Beskrestnov, an adviser to the President of Ukraine on defense technology development, reported that Russian forces had used a specialized cumulative-cutting warhead on a jet-powered UAV for the first time.

"Such a warhead was created specifically to destroy high-voltage pylons and iron bridge structures," Beskrestnov wrote on Telegram.

According to Beskrestnov, the specialized payload, identified as KRSN, consists of a 40-kilogram main warhead and four additional destructive modules. He assessed that Russia may intend to use the system against strategically important high-voltage transmission lines.

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War in Ukraine

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Local monitoring channels separately reported outages on both banks of Kyiv and disruptions to public electric transportation.

One channel reported that electric transport had temporarily stopped in the Shevchenkivskyi and Holosiivskyi districts because of a loss of voltage in the overhead network. These reports had not been independently confirmed by city authorities at the time of publication.

The apparent focus on high-voltage infrastructure fits a broader Russian campaign against Ukraine’s energy system, which has repeatedly targeted generation facilities, substations, and transmission infrastructure during the full-scale invasion.

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