Hundreds of thousands of people were without power after Russia attacked Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, authorities said on Sunday.
In the central region of Dnipropetrovsk, “more than 600,000 residents of the region were without power” after “nighttime attacks damaged important energy installations,” power company DTEK said on Telegram.
The company was said to be working to restore power, but “the task has been complicated by repeated attacks”.
Ukrainian President Vladimir previously defendant Russia plans to step up its attacks on Ukraine ahead of trilateral talks with Russia next week.
In a separate attack, a Russian drone struck “an important infrastructure” in the northeastern region of Kharkiv, Zlatopil Mayor Mykola Bakseyev said on social media.
“Nearly 250,000 customers in the Kharkiv region are without power,” Bakseyev said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the night strike had triggered a “massive blackout across the country.”
“In the Zhytomyr region alone, 140 apartment buildings were left without heating after the Russian attack,” he said. At the time, temperatures in Ukraine were already hovering around freezing.
He also said Russia had launched a drone into Komyshuakha, a village in the Zaporozhye region where Moscow on Monday attacked an aid distribution center in one of the deadliest attacks of the war.
Zelensky said the death toll had risen to 55. Emergency services had put the death toll at 50.
“This morning, the Russians used an FPV drone to attack Komyshuvakha, where emergency rescue operations have been ongoing for seven days… Unfortunately, many more people may be buried under the rubble,” Zelensky said.
The attack came a day after Ukraine’s Energy Ministry said a massive attack on energy facilities plunged residents in five regions into darkness and severely hampered power transmission in Kiev.