Russia Strikes Ukraine's Power Grid Ahead of Abu Dhabi Talks, Leaving Hundreds of Thousands Without Power

Russian missile and drone strikes battered Ukraine's energy network overnight, leaving more than 600,000 people without electricity in the Dnipropetrovsk region and about 250,000 more in Kharkiv, days before US-mediated peace talks are due to open in Abu Dhabi. (Source: Reuters; Source: NHK)

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said 12 regions came under attack, with Kyiv hit hardest, in a wave of more than 30 ballistic missiles and over 170 drones. The strikes hit substations that connect the Rivne and Khmelnytskyi nuclear power plants to Kyiv and central Ukraine, damaged Kyiv's Northern Bridge across the Dnipro River, and disrupted water and heating supplies in parts of the capital. One person was killed in the Kyiv region and nine people were injured across the country, including one child. (Source: Reuters; Source: Agence France-Presse; Source: Le Temps)

Ukraine's largest private power company, DTEK, said the overnight attack damaged important energy facilities in Dnipropetrovsk, and repairs were being hampered by continuing strikes. In Dnipro, hospitals switched to diesel generators and electric-powered public transport ground to a halt. In Kharkiv, officials said a Russian drone struck critical infrastructure and that it was not yet possible to say when supply would be restored. (Source: DTEK; Source: Reuters)

The attacks also briefly cut external power to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Europe's largest, forcing it onto emergency generators before supply was restored late on Sunday, according to Ukraine's nuclear operator Energoatom and the International Atomic Energy Agency. Russia's defence ministry said its forces had targeted military and industrial sites, and on Monday said they had hit three more power substations overnight and a cargo vessel in the Black Sea that Moscow claimed was carrying weapons to Ukraine, reports Reuters said it could not independently verify. (Source: Reuters; Source: The Hindu)

The strikes matter because they land at the start of winter, when Ukraine's power and heating networks are already under strain. Russia began stepping up attacks on energy infrastructure in late September and has targeted the sector every winter since its full-scale invasion began. Zelenskyy accused Moscow of preparing for the talks by launching attacks on Ukrainian critical infrastructure, saying the strikes were aimed at influencing the negotiations. (Source: Reuters; Source: Agence France-Presse)

The trilateral talks, mediated by the United States, are scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday in Abu Dhabi. Russia's delegation will be led by presidential adviser Vladimir Medinsky, while US envoy Steve Witkoff has said the talks will cover security arrangements after the war, de-escalation and humanitarian issues. Nothing of substance has been agreed so far, and the last round of talks, in Geneva, took place in February. (Source: Reuters; Source: Le Temps)

Repair crews were working across the affected regions on Monday, but officials in Kharkiv gave no timetable for restoring power. In Kyiv, the mayor said the water supply system was back to operating normally and that about 60 percent of the city's apartment buildings had been reconnected to heating. Whether the Abu Dhabi talks produce any pause in the fighting will become clearer when the delegations sit down on Tuesday. (Source: Reuters; Source: Le Temps)

This article was researched and drafted with AI assistance and verified against multiple independent sources.