Russia attacked Ukraine with almost a hundred drones overnight on Thursday, as Moscow continues to target energy infrastructure across the country.
Following another massive attack the night before, Moscow again targeted the Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia regions, resulting in power outages in both.
Zaporizhzhia in southeastern Ukraine was left without power around 10 pm local time on Wednesday. Electricity and heating gradually began returning after 3 am on Thursday, Zaporizhzhia regional governor Ivan Fedorov said.
“This was the first total blackout across the entire region in recent years, but all services were on site from the very first minute,” Fedorov stated.
In neighbouring Dnipropetrovsk region in central Ukraine, the situation still remained critical on Thursday afternoon.
As of Thursday, around 1 million people in the region still lack water and heating, according to the Communities and Territories Development Minister Oleksii Kuleba.
Critical services have been disrupted, with city hospitals across Dnipro partially operating on generator power, according to Dnipro Mayor Boris Filatov, who described the blackout as “the most difficult” among all Ukrainian cities.
“Technically speaking, the situation in Dnipro is one of the most difficult. This is actually a national emergency,” he said, adding that the city administration is working on restoring power first to critical facilities, including the hospitals.
Public transportation including the metro has been disrupted, and school holidays in the regions have been extended by a few days.
The Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military Administration asked the residents to limit their use of mobile communications as all mobile operators’ base stations are being switched to emergency battery power.
DTEK, Ukraine’s biggest private energy provider, said its crews are working around the clock to restore power.
“Repair teams worked overnight to restore electricity after the combat-related damage knocked out supply to critical infrastructure serving the city of Dnipro and surrounding areas,” the company said in a statement.
“The pace of restoration remains constrained by air raid alerts, which are forcing workers to suspend repairs and seek shelter,” it added.
Outages in winter cause further hardship
Russia has intensified its attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure during the winter months, as it has done every year since the beginning of Moscow’s full-scale invasion in early 2022.
Temperatures in Ukraine are expected to drop below -10 degrees Celsius in the coming days, making power and heating outages even more difficult and dangerous for the population.
Meanwhile, Ukraine has ramped up its diplomatic efforts together with the Western partners to put an end to Russia’s all-out war.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on Kyiv’s partners to “respond to this deliberate torment of our people by Russia” with Moscow’s attacks against civilian energy infrastructure.
“There is absolutely no military rationale in such strikes on the energy sector and infrastructure that leave people without electricity and heating in wintertime,” Zelenskyy said.
“This is Russia’s war specifically against our people, against life in Ukraine – an attempt to break Ukraine.”
This is why Ukraine is asking its partners for more air defence in parallel with the intensified diplomatic peace process, Zelenskyy noted.
“Diplomatic discussions cannot be a pretext for slowing down the supply of air defense systems and equipment that helps protect lives. We are working with our partners to ensure an adequate response.”