Ukrainian and Russian drone strikes battered energy infrastructure and residential areas on both sides of the front, leaving more than 200,000 people without power in occupied Zaporizhzhia and killing at least two across Ukraine, as U.S. and Ukrainian officials met in Miami to discuss security guarantees and a post-war recovery package.
In Ukraine’s southeast, a Ukrainian drone strike cut electricity to more than 200,000 consumers in the Russian-held portion of the Zaporizhzhia region, according to Moscow-installed regional governor Yevgeny Balitsky. He said on Telegram that crews were working to restore service but that nearly 400 settlements remained without power. Around three-quarters of the region is under Russian control, and temperatures there are well below freezing.
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The outage underscores the vulnerability of energy systems on both sides during the war’s fourth winter. Russia has repeatedly targeted Ukraine’s power grid since 2022, triggering rolling daily blackouts nationwide and striking heating infrastructure as demand peaks in cold weather.
Further south, across the border in Russia’s North Ossetia region, a Ukrainian drone hit a residential building in the town of Beslan, injuring two children and one adult, the regional governor said. The incident points to the widening reach of drone warfare as both militaries seek to disrupt logistics and sap morale far from the immediate front lines.
Inside Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky said a mass Russian drone assault overnight killed two people and wounded dozens. He said the attacks targeted the Sumy, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, Khmelnytskyi and Odesa regions and involved more than 200 drones. Ukraine’s military said it recorded 30 strikes across 15 locations.
In Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, one person was killed, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said. Terekhov in recent days has reported significant damage to local energy facilities from continued Russian strikes. It was not immediately clear where the second fatality occurred.
Zelensky said he ordered accelerated imports of electricity and additional power equipment, an acknowledgment of the mounting strain on the grid as Ukraine scrambles to harden infrastructure and patch damage ahead of further attacks. Energy crews have worked through blackouts and subfreezing temperatures since last winter’s bombardments, but the scale and frequency of recent strikes have renewed pressure on the system.
The latest wave of Russian drones coincided with talks in Miami between U.S. and Ukrainian officials on long-term security guarantees and a post-war recovery framework for Ukraine. Washington has pressed Kyiv to articulate a broader peace framework it could eventually present to Moscow, according to officials familiar with the discussions. Russia has been cool to the diplomatic push and has demanded sweeping Ukrainian concessions.
With both sides intensifying long-range strikes and winter driving up humanitarian costs, the battlefield and diplomatic tracks remain tightly linked. Ukraine is trying to preserve critical services under daily attack while signaling its vision for a durable settlement; Russia is pressing its advantage against infrastructure to erode Ukraine’s resilience and negotiating leverage.
There was no immediate independent verification of the full scope of damage reported by either side. The figures provided by officials suggest a volatile period ahead as both militaries lean on drones to extend the war’s reach, and as Ukraine and its partners weigh how quickly a negotiated framework can be shaped amid ongoing attacks.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
