Ukraine imposes blackouts in most regions after attacks on the Russian power grid

Emergency power outages were imposed in almost all of Ukraine following an intense campaign of Russian airstrikes on energy infrastructure.

This will be the fourth straight winter of blackouts across Ukraine since Russia began its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

The Department of Energy said all but two regions were affected. Only the eastern Donetsk region, which is at the forefront of the war, has been liberated, while the northern Chernihiv region is already facing hourly outages.

In addition to targeting the energy grid, Russia is increasingly targeting Ukrainian railways. Meanwhile, Ukraine has stepped up attacks on Russian oil refineries, in border regions and beyond.

An oil depot on the Crimean peninsula – which Moscow illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014 – has been burning for three days after a second Ukrainian drone strike in a week.

The sea oil terminal in Feodosia is the largest in Crimea and an important logistical link for Russian troops operating in Ukraine.

The General Staff of Kiev’s armed forces said on Wednesday that 16 fuel tanks had been damaged and that the massive fire was still burning.

An increase in drone attacks on oil refineries and pipelines has also led to fuel shortages and rising prices in some parts of Russia, a development that Ukrainian leaders hope will hurt Russia’s military effort and help bring the Kremlin to the negotiating table.

The strikes have reduced Russian fuel exports to their lowest level since the start of the war, according to data from the International Energy Agency.

Ukraine’s energy ministry said the emergency restrictions were being imposed “due to the complex situation”. Emergency work is underway in all regions affected by the Russian attack, grid operator Ukrenergo said, urging consumers who still have electricity to use it sparingly.

Temperatures in parts of Ukraine were expected to drop to 3C overnight on Thursday.

The power company in Lviv in western Ukraine said that because the outages were under emergency conditions, there was no way to warn consumers in advance.

Russia says its attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure are aimed at its military, but millions of civilians have already been affected by outages in recent weeks. In just one night last week, on October 9-10, a combined missile and drone attack caused power outages in nine regions, from Kharkiv and Sumy in the north to Odesa in the south.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Moscow of aiming to “create chaos and apply psychological pressure on the population through strikes on energy facilities and railways”.

Kiev has long pushed for more weapons that could allow it to strike deeper into Russia, and Zelensky this week pledged that long-range weapons would only be used against military targets, not civilians.

Ukraine’s Western allies are wary of providing long-range weapons over concerns that such a move would escalate the war.

Moscow has repeatedly said it would consider the use of Western-made weapons to strike Russia as “direct involvement” of NATO countries in the war in Ukraine.

However, Moscow’s “red line” regarding Western missiles has already been crossed without clear consequences.

US President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly spoken of his impatience with Russia’s failure to move toward an end to the war, said he was considering supplying Kiev with Tomahawk missiles.

He is due to meet with Zelensky in the US on Friday.

At a NATO summit on Wednesday, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the US and its allies would “impose a cost on Russia for its continued aggression” if the war in Ukraine does not end.

The U.S. was ready to play its part “in ways that only the United States can do,” Hegseth said, without elaborating. He also encouraged NATO countries to contribute to the Ukraine Priority List (Purl) program, under which allies buy US-made weapons that are then shipped to Ukraine.

Several countries have already said they will participate in Purl. Germany on Wednesday said it would spend $500m (£374m) on arms for Ukraine, while the Netherlands and Scandinavian countries collectively pledged $1bn.

Kiev remains dependent on Western arms donations to repel Russian troops, even as it develops its own defense industry.

Research published by the Kiel Institute in Germany this week showed that military aid sent to Ukraine has dropped by 43% compared to the first half of the year.