Russian strikes black out 600,000 in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region as Europe’s biggest nuclear plant falls back on diesel, two days before Abu Dhabi talks

Russia hit Ukraine’s power grid again overnight into Sunday, leaving more than 600,000 people in the Dnipropetrovsk region without electricity as temperatures fell close to freezing.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 164 Shahed-type attack drones and three guided missiles overnight. Power company DTEK said the attack “damaged important energy facilities” in the region, cutting supply to the city of Dnipro and the Pavlohrad, Samarivka, Kamianske and Dnipro districts. It said crews were working to restore power, with critical infrastructure first, but that repeated attacks were slowing them down. Scheduled hourly blackouts were also in place across parts of the region on Sunday.

Zelensky said the strikes caused outages in several other regions too, including in Zhytomyr, west of Kyiv, where he said 140 apartment buildings lost heating. Russia’s defence ministry said it had hit a power substation in the Zhytomyr region that supplied Ukraine’s defence industry, as well as a container ship southwest of Odesa that it said was carrying weapons. Neither Russian claim has been independently confirmed.

What happened at the nuclear plant?

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, held by Russian forces since March 2022, lost its outside power supply early on Sunday. Its Russian-installed management said the damaged Ferosplavna line had been disconnected by protective systems, and that diesel generators were now running the equipment needed to keep the plant safe. It said radiation levels at the site and in the surrounding area were normal.

Energoatom, Ukraine’s state nuclear company, said the plant lost its last working 330 kV line at 2.36am Kyiv time (8.36am AWST), and that this was the 16th time this year the plant had been cut off from outside power completely.

The plant’s reactors are not generating power, but their fuel still needs a steady supply of electricity for cooling. Each switch to diesel leaves fewer layers of backup between the plant and a far more serious situation. No date has been given for reconnecting it.

Why did a drone hit rescuers?

In Komyshuvakha, in the Zaporizhzhia region, a Russian drone struck emergency workers on Sunday at the former school where a 2 November attack hit residents waiting for humanitarian aid. Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said no one was hurt this time, but specialised rescue equipment was damaged.

The death toll from the original attack has risen to 55, the emergency service said, after crews recovered the remains of nine more people in a single day. Ukrainian authorities say the site was bombed a second time after people had taken shelter, and military intelligence says about 50 people are still listed as missing. Many of the dead have not yet been identified, and DNA testing is under way.

Zelensky called the strike on rescue crews “absolute cynicism and brutality”.

Why now?

Ukraine, Russia and the United States are due to meet in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday and Wednesday for their first three-way talks since February. Zelensky has accused Moscow of stepping up its strikes to put pressure on Kyiv before the talks begin. On Saturday, Russian ballistic missiles hit Kyiv’s power supply and damaged the Northern Bridge across the Dnipro River.

Zelensky said Russia had fired 115 missiles, about 1,900 guided aerial bombs and more than 3,000 drones at Ukraine over the past week. He called for sanctions on countries that supply Russia with missiles, and urged the European Union to adopt a strong 22nd sanctions package.

What does this mean beyond Ukraine?

Each winter of the war, Russia has gone after Ukraine’s power stations, substations and transmission lines, aiming to leave cities without heat, water pumps and light as the cold sets in. This is the fifth such winter. For Europe, the Zaporizhzhia plant is the sharpest risk: it sits on the front line in occupied territory, and every loss of power adds to the strain on its backup systems.

For the talks, the strikes set the tone. Kyiv will arrive in Abu Dhabi with parts of its grid down and a fresh attack on rescuers to point to, while Moscow has shown it can keep up the pressure in the meantime.

VNN will update this story as more is confirmed.