More than a million Ukrainian homes plunged into darkness by Russian strikes
More than a million households are without power in Ukraine after a barrage of Russian strikes hit multiple regions as the country heads into winter.
More than a million households are without power in Ukraine after a barrage of Russian strikes hit energy and industrial infrastructure, officials said, Moscow intensified strikes as the country heads into winter.
Five regions were hit and at least five people were injured, and work was under way to extinguish fires and restore supplies, Ukraine’s internal affairs minister, Ihor Klymenko, said.
It comes as Steve Witkoff, US President Donald Trump’s overseas envoy, prepares to head to Germany this weekend to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders for more talks on ending the war.
Mr Zelensky said more than 450 drones and 30 missiles were used by Russia in overnight strikes. Mr Klymenko said the Dnipropetrovsk, Kirovohrad, Mykolaiv, Odesa and Chernihiv regions were hit.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant temporarily lost all power “due to widespread military activities affecting the electrical grid”, but is now reconnected.
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KIM JONG UN HAILS TROOPS ON RUSSIAN MISSION
North Korea sent troops to clear mines in Russia’s Kursk region earlier this year, leader Kim Jong Un said in a speech, a rare acknowledgment by Pyongyang of the deadly tasks assigned to its deployed soldiers.
North Korea has sent thousands of troops to support Russia’s nearly four-year invasion of Ukraine, according to South Korean and Western intelligence agencies.
Analysts say Russia is giving North Korea financial aid, military technology, food and energy supplies in return, allowing the diplomatically isolated nation to sidestep tough international sanctions on its nuclear and missile programs.
Hailing the return of an engineering regiment, Kim noted that they wrote “letters to their hometowns and villages at breaks of the mine-clearing hours”, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), on Saturday.
Nine members of the regiment died during the 120-day deployment that started in August, Kim said in his speech at a welcome ceremony on Friday, KCNA reported.
He awarded the deceased state honours to “add eternal lustre” to their bravery. “All of you, both officers and soldiers, displayed mass heroism overcoming unimaginable mental and physical burdens almost every day,” Kim said.
The troops had been able to “work a miracle of turning a vast area of danger zone into a safe and secure one in a matter of less than three months”.
US ENVOY TO MEET ZELENSKY, EU LEADERS
US President Donald Trump’s special envoy will meet with Volodymyr Zelensky and other European leaders in Berlin this weekend, the White House said, as Washington presses for a plan to end Russia’s war with Ukraine.
Trump has been stepping up pressure on Kyiv to reach an agreement since revealing a peace plan last month that has been accused of echoing Moscow’s key demands, including Ukraine ceding crucial territory.
The 28-point proposal has triggered a flurry of diplomacy between the United States and Ukraine’s European allies, with Kyiv officials recently saying they had sent Washington an updated plan.
RUSSIAN FORCES ATTACK UKRAINE PORTS
Russian forces have attacked two Ukrainian ports, damaging three Turkish-owned vessels, including a ship carrying food supplies, according to Ukrainian officials and a shipowner.
It comes after residential buildings and a church were damaged in the frontline town of Kostyantynivka, Donetsk region, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
NATO CHIEF’S CHILLING RUSSIA WARNING
NATO chief Mark Rutte has urged the West to prepare for war “like our grandparents endured”, warning Russia has set its sights on the UK and other allies next.“We are Russia’s next target. I fear that too many are quietly complacent,” said Mr Rutte, speaking at a security conference event in Berlin.
Mr Rutte predicted Russia could wage war with NATO within the next five years.
TRUMP ‘FRUSTRATED’ WITH KYIV, MOSCOW
Donald Trump is “extremely frustrated” with Russia and Ukraine, his spokeswoman said on Thursday US time, as Kyiv said Washington was still pushing it to make major territorial concessions as part of its plan to end the nearly four-year war.
“The president is extremely frustrated with both sides of this war,” Karoline Leavitt told reporters.
“He doesn’t want anymore talk. He wants action. He wants this war to come to an end.”
UKRAINE COULD HOLD REFERENDUM ON GIVING UP DISPUTED LAND
Volodymyr Zelensky made remarks that appeared to show little had changed in Washington’s core position on how the conflict should end since it sent a 28-point plan to Kyiv and Moscow last month that heavily favoured Russia.
Mr Zelensky said that Washington was still pushing it to cede land to Russia as part of an agreement to end the war that started with Moscow’s February 2022 invasion.
Washington wants only Ukraine, not Russia, to withdraw its troops from parts of the eastern Donetsk region, where a demilitarised “free economic zone” would be installed as a buffer between the two armies, Mr Zelensky told reporters.
Ukraine has been revising the original US proposal and this week sent a 20-point counter-proposal to Washington, the full details of which have not been published.
“We have two key points of disagreement: the territories of Donetsk and everything related to them, and the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. These are the two topics we continue to discuss,” Mr Zelensky told reporters at a briefing.
He added he has no “constitutional” or “moral” right to cede Ukrainian land, and on Thursday Europe time said Ukrainians should have the final say on the issue.
RUSSIANS DELAYED UKRAINE’S ‘PEARL HARBOUR’-STYLE ATTACK ON MOSCOW
An abundance of hungover Russian drivers forced Ukraine to pause its “Pearl Harbor”-style attack on Moscow’s bomber fleet, just one of the hiccups that nearly thwarted the secret operation, the New York Post reports.
After Kyiv successfully sneaked dozens of drones into Russia for the unprecedented attack in May, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) hoped to launch the assault around Russian Victory Day on May 9 to humiliate the Kremlin.
Instead, the festivities around the holiday, as well as Russian Labor Day, and Orthodox Easter, created an unexpected issue — a lack of active drivers to carry out the mission, the Wall Street Journal reported.
For Operation Spider’s Web to be a success, Ukraine was relying on a group of unwitting Russian drivers to transport their drones to the desired locations, with the truckers believing they were only hauling mobile wooden cabins.
It wasn’t until the end of May that Kyiv found the perfect set of drivers to hire for the days-long mission, which was carried out on July 1 and saw 41 Russian bombers damaged and destroyed.
– with AFP and the New York Post
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Originally published as More than a million Ukrainian homes plunged into darkness by Russian strikes
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