Thousands of people in central Ukraine were left without electricity on Tuesday following a countrywide Russian attack involving more than 130 drones that damaged critical infrastructure.
Ukraine and Russai have recently escalated cross-border drone and missile attacks despite a US-led proposal for a 30-day ceasefire to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The governor of the Zaporizhzhia region, which the Kremlin claims as part of Russia, said around 3,000 people were cut off from the grid following the attack, which he said damaged critical infrastructure.
The governor of the neighbouring Dnipropetrovsk region, on which Russian forces have been closing in, said the barrage resulted in a fire at another critical infrastructure facility.
In Kyiv, authorities said the debris from a downed Russian drone landed in the courtyard of a school at the beginning of the school day. Pupils were in shelters at the time of the attack, they added.
The Ukrainian air force said it had downed 63 out of 137 Russian drones.
Russia’s defence ministry meanwhile said that 46 Ukrainian drones used in overnight attacks had been neutralised.
According to local authorities, the strikes, which targeted several regions of Russia, wounded six people, as the attacks came shortly before Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump were due to hold talks on a potential ceasefire to the fighting in Ukraine.
Russia’s forces occupy swathes of its neighbour’s territory.
