A massive overnight Russian assault on Ukraine killed three people and injured nearly 30, officials said on Saturday, as strikes on the power grid left more than 600,000 households without electricity.Residential buildings in multiple districts were hit in the early hours, with loud explosions echoing across the city as emergency crews responded, as cited by the BBC.
“As a result of the attack, more than 500,000 consumers in Kyiv, more than 100,000 in the Kyiv region and almost 8,000 in the Kharkiv region were left without electricity in the morning,” Ukraine’s energy ministry said.Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia fired about 36 missiles and nearly 600 drones during the assault. Moscow has carried out repeated large-scale strikes on Ukraine’s power infrastructure since 2022, but the latest autumn campaign has further strained major cities, including Kyiv, where some households receive as little as eight hours of electricity on the worst blackout days.The capital’s streets are now dominated by the constant hum of generators and the smell of diesel, while residents often rely on torches at night as streetlights remain dark, as cited by Reuters.The latest bombardment coincided with Ukrainian negotiators preparing to meet US officials this weekend to discuss a revised version of US-brokered peace plan.“While everyone is discussing points of peace plans, Russia continues to pursue its ‘war plan’ of two points: to kill and destroy,” Ukraine’s foreign minister Andrii Sybiha was quoted as saying by Reuters.Russian president Vladimir Putin, on Thursday, reiterated his key conditions for ending the war, insisting Russia would halt its offensive only if Ukrainian forces withdraw from the territories claimed by Moscow.He also confirmed that a US delegation led by special envoy Steve Witkoff is expected in Moscow in the first half of next week to discuss the draft peace plan now at the centre of negotiations.
