The Russian-occupied part of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region has been hit by power outages after Ukrainian drone attacks, local pro-Russian authorities said, as quoted by DPA.
The Moscow-appointed governor of the region, Yevgeny Balitsky, wrote on Telegram that "a significant part" of the region was left in the dark. He added that generators are supporting critical infrastructure such as hospitals and water supply, and urged residents to be patient while emergency crews repair the damage.
At the same time, Balitsky warned that anyone who publishes and distributes photos and videos of the operation of air defense systems and damage from strikes will be subject to punishment.
Earlier, videos of drone strikes on a substation in the Melitopol area appeared on social networks.
According to pro-Russian authorities, there are also power outages in the Moscow-occupied part of the neighboring Kherson region. Several hundred villages are without electricity, said Kremlin-appointed governor Vladimir Saldo.
Ukraine has been defending itself against the Russian invasion for almost four years. Russian forces control over 70% of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.
In sub-zero temperatures, the Russian army has repeatedly attacked Ukrainian energy infrastructure, leading to power and heating blackouts in large parts of Ukraine. The situation is particularly dire in and around the capital, Kiev.
Meanwhile, a woman was killed in Kharkiv and several people were injured in Sumy in Russian air strikes overnight on the two northeastern Ukrainian cities, authorities said, as quoted by Agence France-Presse.
"There is information about a death in an enemy drone strike on a residential building," the mayor of the large city near the Russian border, Igor Terekhov, wrote on Telegram.
Later, regional governor Oleg Sinegubov said that a 20-year-old woman had been killed.
Emergency services reported an air strike in a residential area of Sumy. Four people were injured, including a seven-year-old child.
On the diplomatic front, negotiations under the auspices of US President Donald Trump appear to have reached a dead end, notes Agence France-Presse. Ukrainian negotiators arrived in the US yesterday for talks and will meet in Miami, Florida, with White House special envoy Steve Witkoff and the president's son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that central heating in the Ukrainian capital is gradually being restored after a several-day outage, DPA reported.
Around 50 high-rise buildings remain without heating, Klitschko wrote on Telegram. After a massive Russian air strike on January 9, central heating was cut off in 6,000 apartment buildings, about half of the housing stock.
"Municipal officials are working around the clock," Klitschko wrote. Kiev is enduring a harsh winter with temperatures dropping to -16 degrees Celsius at night.
Systematic Russian attacks have caused widespread power and heating outages across the country, DPA reported.
The situation is particularly dire in Kiev, home to 3 million people, where authorities have imposed a blackout in recent days.
According to energy company DTEK, another airstrike on the outskirts of Kiev in the early hours of today knocked out power to 56,000 households in the suburb of Bucha.
Energy facilities in the southern Odessa region were also shelled overnight, local authorities said.
Ukrainian officials say the Russian army is deliberately targeting energy infrastructure to make major cities uninhabitable in the dead of winter.