Ukraine’s power grid operator blamed a ‘massive attack’ by Russian forces on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure for electricity outages across the country on Saturday.
“Due to the damage caused by the enemy, emergency outages have been applied in most regions,” Ukrenergo said in a statement on Telegram.
Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmygal said the Russian strikes had hit the Burshtynska and Dobrotvirska power plants in western Ukraine and called for emergency assistance from neighbouring Poland.
Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal said repairs to damaged facilities would begin ‘as soon as the security situation allows’.
Russia has been accused of deliberately targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure during the nearly four-year conflict.
Waves of attacks have hit power plants, substations and transmission lines, often timed with cold weather to maximise disruption.
The attacks have contributed to chronic power deficits and repeated emergency outages in the war-ravaged country.
Recent strikes on energy facilities have come during one of Ukraine’s coldest winters in more than a decade.
‘Using winter as war leverage’
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the latest Russia’s latest strikes on energy infrastructure involved more than 400 drones and around 40 missiles.
Zelenskyy wrote on X that the main targets were ‘the energy grid, generation facilities, and distribution substations’.
He said that damage has been reported in Volyn, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, and Rivne regions, noting additional strikes in Kyiv and Kharkiv regions.
As negotiations continue to end the war, Zelenskyy said Russia ‘must be deprived of the ability to use the cold as leverage against Ukraine’, which he said would require Patriot, NASAMS and other missile systems from Kyiv’s allies.
US ‘gave deadline’ to reach peace deal
Meanwhile, Zelenskyy told reporters that Washington has given both Kyiv and Moscow a deadline until June to end the war.
Zelenskyy said if the deadline is not met, the Trump administration would likely pressure both sides to meet it.
“The Americans are proposing the parties end the war by the beginning of this summer and will probably put pressure on the parties precisely according to this schedule,” Zelenskyy said in comments embargoed until Saturday morning.
“And they say that they want to do everything by June. And they will do everything to end the war. And they want a clear schedule of all events,” he said.
Zelenskyy confirmed Ukraine’s participation in the next round of trilateral talks, proposed for next week in the United States.
During a previous round of trilateral talks this week in Abu Dhabi, Russia pushed Ukraine to withdraw from the Donbas, which Kyiv said it would never accept.
‘Something could be happening’
US President Donald Trump said that discussions over Russia’s war in Ukraine were progressing well, suggesting that a peace plan could soon move forward, without giving details.
“We had very, very good talks today on Russia and Ukraine. Something could be happening,” he told reporters on Friday.
Trump, who pledged to end the conflict after taking office, has yet to deliver on that promise more than a year into his second term.
Sources told Reuters news agency that US and Ukrainian negotiators have been exploring an ambitious target of reaching a Russia-Ukraine peace deal by March.
The sources said the timeline is expected to slip amid unresolved disputes over territory.
The two sides have also discussed the possibility of a referendum and elections in May, Reuters reported.
Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said on Thursday that delegations from the three countries had agreed to exchange 314 prisoners of war.
DW
