kyiv (Ukraine) (AFP) - Russian attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure left hundreds of thousands of homes without power in the Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv regions, authorities and an energy company reported on Sunday.

First modification: 11/09/2026 - 12:07

Ukraine is preparing for a harsh new winter of war as Russia intensifies daily aerial bombardments, launching drones and missiles against the power grid.

In the central region of Dnipropetrovsk, "more than 600,000 inhabitants of the region have been left without power," the electricity company DTEK said on Telegram after a "night attack that damaged important energy facilities."

The company said it was working to restore supplies, but that the task was "complicated by repeated attacks."

In another attack, a Russian drone hit "a critical infrastructure facility" in the northeastern region of Kharkiv, the mayor of the city of Zlatopil, Mykola Baksheyev, reported on social media.

"Almost 250,000 customers in the Kharkiv region were left without electricity," Baksheyev said.

Repair work was underway, but "the exact deadline for restoring power supply is still unknown," he added.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said the overnight attacks had caused "widespread power outages across the country", including areas where hundreds of residential buildings were left without heat as temperatures in Ukraine were already hovering around freezing.

He also said Russia had launched a drone against the town in the Zaporizhia region where Moscow bombed an aid distribution center on Monday in one of the deadliest attacks of the war.

The death toll rose to 55 people, Zelensky said. The previous balance of the emergency services was 50 deaths.

"This morning, the Russians attacked Komyshuvakha with an FPV drone, where emergency rescue operations have been underway for seven days... Unfortunately, there may still be more people under the rubble," Zelensky said.

The attacks came a day after Ukraine's Energy Ministry reported a massive crackdown on energy facilities that left residents in five regions in the dark and significantly hampered electricity transmission in kyiv.

Zelensky accused Russia of intensifying its attacks to pressure kyiv at the US-sponsored trilateral talks scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday in Abu Dhabi.

Russia has bombed Ukraine's power grid and energy infrastructure throughout its four-and-a-half-year invasion, and kyiv now enters another winter of war.

© 2026 AFP

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