Ukrainian officials raced to restore power on Thursday after Russian drone attacks plunged two southeastern regions into near-total blackout overnight, strikes that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said were aimed at "breaking" his country, Report informs via Reuters.
Zelenskyy said Russia was intent on using wintry weather as a weapon rather than allowing US-led diplomacy to work towards a resolution of nearly four years of conflict.
A Russian missile attack on Thursday targeted apartment buildings in Kryvyi Rih, Zelenskyy's hometown in Dnipropetrovsk region, killing one person and injuring 24, including six children, the head of the local military administration, Oleksandr Vilkul, said.
In a rare instance of simultaneous warnings, the Ukrainian president and the US Embassy in Kyiv said a new mass Russian strike was possible.
Moscow has intensified its attacks on Ukraine's energy system as Ukrainian forces fend off Russian advances on the battlefield and Kyiv faces US pressure to quickly secure a peace deal.
Private energy provider DTEK said power had been restored to nearly 700,000 households by Thursday evening after the overnight attack.
But it said 194,000 households remained without electricity, including in Kryvyi Rih.
The head of the city's military administration, Oleksandr Vilkul, said Kryvyi Rih had been subjected to one of the heaviest combined attacks of drones and missiles since Moscow sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022.
Twenty-nine apartment buildings were damaged and more than 70,000 remained without power. The water supply was operating, though with reduced pressure.
More than one million people in south-eastern Ukraine spent hours without heating and water supplies as a result of Russian air strikes, officials have said, according to BBC.
The attacks damaged infrastructure across the south-eastern Dnipropetrovsk region - as well as in neighbouring Zaporizhzhia.
Hospitals, water facilities and other critical services in Dnipropetrovsk had to operate on backup systems, the energy ministry said, while residents were urged to limit electricity use to avoid further strain on the grid.