Russian Strikes Cut Power to Hundreds of Thousands in Ukraine Ahead of Abu Dhabi Talks

Russian strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure cut power to more than 850,000 people on Sunday and into Monday, as missiles and drones hit power facilities across 12 regions. The Russia strikes Ukraine power outages came days before United States-brokered talks between Ukraine and Russia are due to open in Abu Dhabi.

FAKTA

• More than 600,000 people lost power in the Dnipropetrovsk region after a night attack damaged energy facilities, power company DTEK said.
• About 250,000 customers were left without power in the Kharkiv region after a drone hit a critical infrastructure facility, the mayor of Zlatopil said.
• President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said 12 regions came under attack, with Kyiv hit hardest, in a wave of more than 30 ballistic missiles and over 170 drones.
• In the Zhytomyr region, 140 apartment buildings were left without heating as temperatures hovered around freezing.
• United States-brokered trilateral talks between Ukraine and Russia are scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday in Abu Dhabi.

Russia Strikes Ukraine Power Outages Hit Dnipropetrovsk Hardest

In the central Dnipropetrovsk region, DTEK said a night attack had damaged important energy facilities, leaving more than 600,000 residents without power. The company said engineers were working to restore electricity, but the task was complicated by repeated attacks.

In the north-eastern Kharkiv region, a Russian drone hit a critical infrastructure facility, the mayor of Zlatopil, Mykola Baksheyev, said. Nearly 250,000 customers in the region were left without power, and repair crews could not say when supply would be restored.

The strikes also hit electricity distribution centres in the port city of Odesa, causing further power cuts, and at least four people were injured in drone attacks in Kremenchuk, in the Poltava region. Emergency power cuts and rolling blackouts were ordered across northern and central Ukraine, including Kyiv, the Kyiv region and Dnipro.

An energy worker holds a flashlight outside a dark apartment building in Dnipro as residents use candles during a power outage.

The same wave of strikes also cut external power to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, which was reconnected to Ukraine’s grid late on Sunday, as Watan News reported.

Kyiv Bridge Damaged as Capital Hit Hardest

Kyiv was hit hardest in the weekend attacks, Zelenskyy said. The city’s Northern Bridge over the Dnipro River was damaged in the strikes, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said, cutting water and district heating in parts of the capital and injuring several civilians, including a 14-year-old girl.

The bridge was partly reopened on Monday after inspection, with one lane carrying passenger traffic towards the right bank, while traffic measures were put in place to keep the city’s riverbanks connected.

Rescue Workers Hit Again in Komyshuvakha

Zelenskyy also said a Russian drone struck Komyshuvakha, a village in the Zaporizhzhia region where rescue work was still under way after an earlier attack on an aid distribution centre. The death toll from that attack has risen to 55 people, he said, with more people possibly still under the rubble.

Strikes Come Days Before Abu Dhabi Talks

Zelenskyy has accused Russia of intensifying its strikes to put pressure on Kyiv ahead of the talks in Abu Dhabi. Russia’s Defence Ministry said its forces had hit two power substations in the Dnipropetrovsk and Zhytomyr regions, which it said supplied power to Ukraine’s defence industry.

The trilateral talks, mediated by the United States, are scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, with France also set to join the negotiations. Europe has agreed to take part in the talks despite objections from Moscow, as Watan News reported.

Ukraine is bracing for another wartime winter as Russia steps up daily aerial attacks on the power network, with hospitals in Dnipro forced onto diesel generators and electric public transport at a standstill in the city.