Russian strikes leave more than 600,000 without power in eastern Ukraine

More than 600,000 people have been left without electricity in eastern Ukraine after Russian missile and drone attacks on the country's power infrastructure. The overnight strikes on Saturday cut power across large parts of the Dnipropetrovsk region.

Electricity provider DTEK said on social media that over 600,000 customers in the Dnipropetrovsk region of south-eastern Ukraine were without power after the attack. Emergency repair work is under way in the affected areas, the company said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday morning denounced what he called an overnight attack on the Dnipro region. He said there were widespread power outages across the country and that repair work was under way in virtually every affected city and community.

The region's governor, Oleksandr Hanzha, said power workers were already working to restore electricity, but their efforts were being hampered by constant Russian shelling. He added that hospitals and critical infrastructure are now relying on generators for power.

The blackout follows shelling in the region on Nov. 3 that damaged infrastructure in a key industrial region bordering active combat areas. A wider attack the same day across Ukraine also targeted energy facilities.

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant also lost power overnight. The International Atomic Energy Agency said on Sunday morning that the plant is now relying on emergency diesel generators for reactor cooling and other essential nuclear safety and security functions.

The attack comes as Kyiv and Moscow prepare for another round of US-brokered peace talks in Abu Dhabi next week. Following the new wave of attacks on Saturday night, Zelenskyy called on international partners to ramp up sanctions on Russia to hamper its capability to acquire or build more missiles.

Zelenskyy said it is very important that the sanctions be synchronized across Europe and G7 jurisdictions. He said the measures were needed to restrict Russia's ability to produce missiles.

He added that if the world does not have enough anti-ballistic capabilities to protect Ukrainian skies, then the missiles must be stopped on the production lines. His remarks put the focus on increasing pressure on Russia's military production system.

Power workers are continuing repair work in the affected areas. With shelling still going on, it is not yet clear when full supply will be restored.