Russian strikes cut power and heat to about 1 million in Dnipro region

Russian strikes knocked out power and heat to about one million customers in the Dnipro region of Ukraine early Thursday morning, Ukrainian authorities said.

Officials said crews were racing to restore service and urged residents to stock up on water and conserve batteries. Local authorities and power companies reported mid-morning that about 200,000 customers were back on the grid but could not predict when services would be fully restored.

DTEK, one of Ukraine’s main power companies, said in a statement, "Restoration work has been going on nonstop since last night — crews from all over the region are working. As soon as we restore all critical infrastructure, we will do everything possible to restore power to families as quickly as possible." Strikes also knocked out power to much of the Zaporizhzhia region, but Ukrenergo said power there was largely restored as of Thursday morning.

Russia has been striking Ukraine’s power grid in recent months, a tactic that Kyiv has called a campaign to break the will of Ukrainians, and has recently begun targeting gas infrastructure as well. It was not immediately clear which sites were hit in the latest attack; authorities warned that temperatures are expected to fall to about minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit at night (roughly minus 20 Celsius) and 14 degrees Fahrenheit during the day, and the timing of full restoration remained unknown.

Key Topics

World, Dnipro Region, Dtek, Ukrenergo, Zaporizhzhia Region, Russian Forces