Early Saturday, an overnight Russian attack plunged parts of Ukraine’s southern Odesa region into darkness. This latest assault specifically targeted Ukraine’s vital energy infrastructure, raising serious concerns as the harsh winter season rapidly approaches.
While officials did not immediately disclose the exact number of people affected by this recent blackout, Ukraine’s energy provider, DTEK, confirmed widespread outages across areas of Odesa’s capital. Encouragingly, DTEK later announced that power had been successfully restored to over 240,000 homes within the region.
Regional governor Oleg Kiper stated via Telegram, “Last night, the aggressor launched attacks on both energy and civilian infrastructure in the Odesa region.”
He further assured the public that “Power engineers are working tirelessly to fully reinstate the electricity supply.”
Since its invasion in 2022, Moscow has systematically targeted Ukraine’s energy grid every winter. These relentless attacks have repeatedly cut off electricity and heating for millions of families and disrupted water services, actions that Kyiv unequivocally condemns as egregious war crimes.
Conversely, Russia refutes claims of targeting civilians, asserting that Ukraine utilizes these energy facilities to support its military operations. Kyiv, however, maintains that these strikes are primarily designed to harm the civilian population.
The blackouts on Saturday followed closely on the heels of another extensive Russian strike just one day prior, which left substantial portions of the capital, Kyiv, and nine other regions without power.
Following that earlier assault, DTEK reported on Saturday morning that it had successfully restored power to more than 800,000 households in Kyiv.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky characterized Friday’s Russian strikes as a “record for villainy” and appealed to Western nations to impose stronger sanctions against Moscow.