Ukraine Says Thousands Lose Power After Russian Strikes on Frontline Region

Ukrainian officials said on Sunday that overnight Russian airstrikes on the frontline region of Zaporizhzhia left nearly 60,000 people without electricity, while two people were killed in the southern city of Odesa.

As winter approaches, Russia has intensified missile and drone attacks on Ukraine’s power grid, causing widespread outages and forcing emergency crews in Kyiv to race to repair damage and manage rolling blackouts.

Regional governor Ivan Fedorov said on the Telegram messaging app that two people were injured in the Zaporizhzhia attack, which reduced several buildings to rubble.

“Once the security situation allows, repair crews will restore power,” Fedorov wrote, sharing nighttime photos showing shattered windows and damaged facades.

Zaporizhzhia has been hit by near-daily Russian artillery, missile, and drone strikes, which have destroyed homes, crippled infrastructure, and killed multiple civilians, as Moscow continues its campaign to pressure Ukraine’s defenses and sever connections between the south and the rest of the country.

According to Fedorov, two people were injured in the overnight attacks. He added that in the past 24 hours alone, Russian forces carried out 800 strikes on 18 settlements in the region, leaving one person dead and three others wounded.

Ukraine’s State Emergency Service reported that two people were killed in overnight drone strikes on Odesa along the Black Sea coast.

Meanwhile, in the Dnipropetrovsk region, the death toll from a Russian airstrike that set a store ablaze on Saturday rose to four, including two boys aged 11 and 14, the acting regional governor said.

Russia has not commented on the latest attacks.

Both sides deny targeting civilians in the war Moscow launched with its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. However, the conflict has killed tens of thousands of people, the vast majority of them Ukrainians.