Russian drone strikes cause major blackouts in two regions of Ukraine

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian drone strikes temporarily knocked out power to the entire southern Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine and left more than 600,000 households in the central Dnipropetrovsk region without electricity, officials said Thursday.

The bombardment occurred against the backdrop of U.S.-led diplomatic efforts to stop the fighting, nearly four years after Russia invaded its neighbor.

Ukraine and its Western allies have been working to establish a framework for a peace settlement, but Moscow has given no public sign it is willing to compromise.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy chided Russia for aiming at public services in the nighttime attack.

“There is no military rationale for such strikes on energy facilities and infrastructure that leave people without electricity and heating in winter conditions,” Zelenskyy said on social media.

Russia has repeatedly targeted Ukraine’s power grid since it invaded, denying civilians heat and running water in a strategy Ukrainian officials call “weaponizing winter.”

The Zaporizhzhia region, which before the war had a population of around 1.5 million, was left without power for four hours for the first time since the invasion.

Emergency crews repaired the grid in Zaporizhzhia but in Dnipropetrovsk there was still no power for hundreds of thousands of people on Thursday afternoon, private energy company DTEK said.

“It is important that our partners around the world respond to Russia’s abuse of people,” Zelenskyy said. He has urged countries to exert greater pressure on Moscow to stop its aggression.

An agreement for the United States to provide postwar security guarantees to Ukraine “is ready to be finalized,” Zelenskyy said, indicating that he could sign it alongside U.S. President Donald Trump.

The agreement would help deter any future Russian attack, but only after a peace deal is reached.

Zelenskyy said that Ukraine, the U.S. and European countries are still discussing postwar reconstruction and development.

Ukraine has presented to U.S. officials possible options for a peace settlement, and Washington will discuss them with Russia, Zelenskyy said.

“We’re waiting for a feedback on whether the enemy is truly ready to end the war,” Zelenskyy added.

The Russian Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said air defenses downed 66 Ukrainian drones overnight over Russian regions, the illegally annexed Crimea, the Black Sea and the Azov Sea.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine