Ukraine Drone Strikes Throw Power Supplies Into Disarray In Russian Cities

Ukraine has hit back at Russia’s attempts to disable its energy infrastructure with air strikes that disrupted power and heating in two cities across the border.

Kyiv’s drone and missile attacks on Sunday cut power and heating in the Russian cities of Belgorod, near the border, and Voronezh, nearly 300km (186 miles) away.

In Belgorod, local Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said missile strikes caused “serious damage” to power and heating systems supplying the city, affecting about 20,000 households.

Alexander Gusev, the regional governor of Voronezh, said several drones were electronically jammed over the city—home to more than one million people—and sparked a fire at a local utility facility that was quickly extinguished.

A Russian Defence Ministry statement made no mention of either the Voronezh or Belgorod regions, reporting instead that 44 Ukrainian drones had been destroyed or intercepted by Russian forces during the night.

Local authorities in the Rostov region also reported an hours-long blackout in the city of Taganrog, home to some 240,000 people, blaming it on an emergency shutdown of a power line. Local media reported that a nearby transformer substation caught fire.

Meanwhile, Russia launched a barrage of drones and missiles in overnight attacks on Ukraine, targeting substations that supply two nuclear power plants and killing seven people, Ukrainian officials told Reuters news agency.

Russia’s Defence Ministry confirmed on Saturday that it had launched “a massive strike with high-precision long-range air, ground and sea-based weapons” on weapons production plants and gas and energy facilities in response to Kyiv’s earlier strikes on Russia.

On Sunday, the northeastern region of Kharkiv was still struggling to recover from Russia’s attacks, which left about 100,000 people without power.

Moscow launched 69 drones at energy facilities across Ukraine overnight into Sunday, of which 34 were shot down, according to the Ukrainian Air Force.

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Russia and Ukraine have traded almost daily assaults on each other’s energy infrastructure as United States-led diplomatic efforts to end the nearly four-year war appear to be making little progress.

Ukrainian long-range drone strikes on Russian refineries have aimed to deprive Moscow of the oil export revenue it needs to sustain the war.

Meanwhile, Kyiv and its Western allies accuse Russia of trying to cripple Ukraine’s power grid and deny civilians access to heat, light, and running water for a fourth consecutive winter—amounting, they say, to the weaponisation of extreme cold.