Russian drone strikes cause major blackouts in two regions of Ukraine

News

Russian drone strikes cause major blackouts in two regions of Ukraine

2026-01-09 02:12 Last Updated At：02:21

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. In a post on social media later Thursday, Zelenskyy said there was information that “a new massive Russian attack may occur tonight,” and he urged people to pay attention to air alerts in the coming days and to take shelter.

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. During the day Thursday, Russia launched two ballistic missiles on Kryvyi Rih, hitting apartment buildings and injuring 10 people with one man in critical condition, according to Oleksandr Vikul, head of the regional military administration.

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

Russia says it used new Oreshnik ballistic missile against Ukraine

Russia said Friday it has used the new Oreshnik ballistic missile along with other weapons in a massive strike on Ukraine.

Ukrainian officials said four people were killed and at least 22 wounded in the capital overnight. Russia didn’t say where Oreshnik hit, but Russian media and military bloggers said it targeted a huge underground natural gas storage facility in Ukraine’s western Lviv region.

Ukraine's Air Force said Russia attacked Ukraine with 242 drones and a combination of 36 missiles. It said one medium-range ballistic missile was used, but did not specify this as the Oreshnik. It said this missile was launched from the Kasputin Yar test site in Russia's Astrakhan region, believed to be the site of the Oreshnik missile launcher.

Russia's Defense Ministry said the attack was a retaliation to what Moscow said was a Ukrainian drone strike on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s residence last month. Both Ukraine and U.S. President Donald Trump have rejected the Russian claim of the attack on Putin’s residence.

The attack comes amid a new chill in relations between Moscow and Washington after Russia condemned the U.S. seizure of an oil tanker in the North Atlantic. It also comes as U.S. President Donald Trump has signaled he is on board with a hard-hitting sanctions package meant to economically cripple Moscow.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Ukraine would be initiating international action in response to the use of the missile, including an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council and a meeting of the Ukraine-NATO Council.

“Such a strike close to EU and NATO border is a grave threat to the security on the European continent and a test for the transatlantic community. We demand strong responses to Russia’s reckless actions,” he said in a post on X.

Lviv Mayor Andrii Sadovyi said that Russia struck critical infrastructure with a ballistic missile, but didn't give details. He said the missile traveled at a speed of 13,000 kilometers (more than 8,000 miles) per hour, and that the specific type of rocket was being investigated.

Russia first tested the Oreshnik — Russian for hazelnut tree — to strike a Ukrainian factory in November 2024. Putin has bragged that Oreshnik’s multiple warheads plunge at speeds of up to Mach 10 and can’t be intercepted, and that several of them used in a conventional strike could be as devastating as a nuclear attack. Oreshnik can also carry nuclear weapons.

The Russian leader has warned the West that Russia could use the Oreshnik next against allies of Kyiv that allowed it to strike inside Russia with their longer-range missiles.

After the overnight strike on Ukraine's capital, those killed included an emergency medical aid worker, said Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko. Five rescue workers sustained injuries while responding to the site of ongoing attacks, said Ukraine's security service.

Several districts in Kyiv were hit in the attack, said Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko. In the Desnyanskyi district a drone crashed onto the roof of a multi-story building. At another address in the same district the first two floors of a residential building were damaged.

In Dnipro district, parts of a drone damaged a multistory building and a fire broke out.

Dmytro Karpenko's windows were shattered in the attack on Kyiv. When he saw that his neighbor's house was on fire, he rushed out to help him.

“What Russia is doing, of course, shows that they do not want peace. But people really want peace, people are suffering, people are dying," the 45-year old said.

Running water and electricity were disrupted in parts of the capital as a result of the attack, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

The attack took place just hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy alerted the nation about Russia’s intentions for a large-scale offensive. He said that Russia aimed to take advantage of the frigid weather in the capital that has made roads and streets perilously icy.