Russian strikes cut power to thousands in Ukraine as Kherson ceasefire to end within hours
A humanitarian ceasefire has allowed civilians to evacuate the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky.
Russian attacks have left thousands in Ukraine without electricity as the Kherson ceasefire is set to expire within hours
A humanitarian truce in Ukraine’s Kherson region, which has enabled civilians to leave the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky, is scheduled to end on Sunday night.
Although the localized ceasefire along the front line has remained in place since it was introduced last week, combat has continued in other areas.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia targeted energy infrastructure in four regions overnight from Saturday into Sunday, cutting power to hundreds of thousands of people.
A separate overnight strike killed two people, including a 13-year-old girl, in the Vinnytsia region, according to Ukraine’s State Emergency Service.
At the same time, Ukraine struck a major missile fuel producer in Russia’s Rostov region, causing a fire and damaging four production facilities, Zelensky said.
Repair work to restore electricity continued across Ukraine throughout the day. By early evening, most customers in the Dnipropetrovsk region had their power restored, though more than 60,000 people were still without electricity, the governor said.
Because energy infrastructure has been hit repeatedly, emergency blackouts have been imposed nationwide. Even in Kyiv, the capital, power is cut for most of the day. Water supplies are also affected.
In a social media post, Zelensky said the intensity of Russian strikes over the past week had been "extremely high", adding that Russia was "trying to take maximum advantage of the shortage of ballistic missile interceptors".
He said that "every day" Ukraine raised its need for Patriot missiles - the only effective weapon for shooting down Russia’s deadly ballistic missiles - with the US, Europe and other partners. He thanked countries for their support so far and for longer-term pledges, while urging more immediate assistance.
On the front line, the localized ceasefire in Kherson was due to end at 22:59 Ukrainian time (21:00 GMT) on Sunday.
The limited halt in fighting, which began on Tuesday, was arranged with the assistance of US First Lady Melania Trump and Pope Leo XIV.
It was first limited to Oleshky, which has been under Russian occupation since the early days of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and was then quickly extended to the wider Kherson region.
Oleshky had been cut off, with the Dnipro river on one side and Russian forces on the other, while escape routes were mined and exposed to drone attacks. People trapped there were facing shortages of food, water and electricity.
The ceasefire allowed Oleshky residents to evacuate if they wished, and on Saturday there were emotional scenes as Ukrainians who had been trapped in the city were reunited with relatives they had not seen for years.
Ukrainian military positions are only 5km (3.1 miles) from Oleshky, but evacuees had to pass through Russian-occupied territory into southern Russia, then fly to Belarus, before being driven across Ukraine’s northern border.
According to Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman, the oldest evacuee was 94 and the youngest was one.