KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Ukrainian drone strikes damaged power grids in Russian-occupied parts of southern Ukraine, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without power Sunday, according to Kremlin-appointed authorities there.
Meanwhile, Moscow continued to hammer Ukraine’s power grid in overnight attacks that killed at least two people, according to Ukrainian officials.
More than 200,000 homes in the Russian-held part of the southern Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine had no electricity on Sunday, according to the local governor installed by the Kremlin.
In a Telegram post, Yevgeny Balitsky said that almost 400 settlements have cut off their supply, due to damage to the energy networks from the Ukrainian drone attacks.
Russia has hammered Ukraine’s power grid, especially in winter, during the nearly four-year war. The strikes aim to weaken Ukrainians’ will to resist in a strategy that Kyiv officials call a “winter of weaponry”.
Russia targeted energy infrastructure in the Odesa region overnight Sunday, according to the Emergency Service of Ukraine. A fire broke out and was promptly extinguished.
At least six people were wounded in the Dnipropetrovsk region by Russian attacks, the emergency service said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a Telegram post that repairing the country’s power system remains challenging, “but we are doing everything we can to restore everything as quickly as possible.”
He said two people were killed in overnight attacks across the country that hit Sumy, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, Khmelnytskyi and Odesa.
In total, more than 1,300 attack drones, 1,050 guided aerial bombs and 29 missiles of various types were used by Russia to strike Ukraine this week, Zelenskyy said.
US talks
“If Russia deliberately delays the diplomatic process, the world’s response should be decisive: more aid to Ukraine and more pressure on the aggressor,” Zelenskyy said.
He spoke the day after a Ukrainian delegation arrived in the United States for talks on a US-led diplomatic push to end the war.
On Friday, Zelenskyy said that the delegation will try to finalize with American officials documents for a proposed peace agreement that relate to post-war security guarantees and economic recovery.
If US officials approve the proposals, the US and Ukraine could sign the documents next week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Zelenskyy said at a news conference in Kiev with Czech President Petr Pavel. Trump plans to be in Davos, according to organizers.
Russia still needs to be consulted on the proposals.
Drones hit the Russian Caucasus
Separately, in Russia’s Caucasus mountains, two children and an adult were injured overnight as debris from a Ukrainian drone fell on a five-story residential building in North Ossetia, according to the regional governor.
Seventy people had to be evacuated from the building, in the city of Beslan, and there was damage to its roof and windows, Governor Sergei Menyaylo said in a Telegram post on Sunday morning.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces shot down or suppressed 63 Ukrainian drones overnight over Russia and the occupied Crimean Peninsula. One person was hospitalized in Russia’s Krasnodar region east of Crimea after a drone strike, local authorities said.
Repairs of nuclear plants
Ukrainian crews have started repair works on the backup power line that connects the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant to the power grid, under a cease-fire brokered by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Vienna-based UN organization said on Sunday.
The fate of the plant, occupied by Russia and the largest in Europe, is a central issue in the ongoing peace talks brokered by the United States.
“Crucial repair works on the 330 kV Ferosplavna-1 power line connecting Ukraine’s ZNPP to the grid have begun under another IAEA-brokered ceasefire,” the agency said in the post.
The 330 kilovolt power line, which was damaged and disconnected due to fighting, is crucial for supplying the plant with electricity.