2 hours ago
A thermal power plant in Kharkiv was damaged after a Russian missile strike.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia is seeking to “deprive people of light and heat” by causing blackouts in eastern Ukraine in response to a Ukrainian counter-attack.
According to reports, the power outages affected about nine million people in regions of eastern Ukraine, including Kharkiv and Donetsk.
This comes after Ukraine said it had recaptured more than 3,000 square kilometers during a rapid counter-offensive in the east.
The BBC cannot verify this data.
Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure had left much of his city without electricity or water.
He described this as a despicable attempt to avenge the recent successes of the Ukrainian army.
What appeared to be two more missile strikes could be heard later in the evening, BBC international affairs correspondent Urla Guerin reported from Kharkiv.
Terekhov and the region’s governor called for calm, saying emergency services were working to repair the damage and put out the fires.
The governor of the neighboring Sumy region said that more than 130 settlements in just one district are without electricity.
Similar problems were reported in the Dnepropetrovsk and Poltava regions.
In a defiant post on social media after the blackout, President Zelensky accused Russia of carrying out “terrorist acts” by targeting civilian infrastructure.
This comes after a significant Ukrainian advance, which, if confirmed, would mean that Ukrainian forces tripled their territorial gains in just over 48 hours.
President Zelensky said 1,000 square kilometers had been restored Thursday evening. This number rose to 2,000 square kilometers on Saturday evening, and then to 3,000 on Sunday.
Journalists have been denied access to the front lines, but several videos on social media show Ukrainian forces in towns and villages that were controlled by Russia until recently.
Ukrainian forces entered the main town of Balaklya on Friday. Russia later confirmed the troop withdrawal, to “reinforce efforts” on the Donetsk front.
On Saturday, Ukraine recaptured two vital supply towns controlled by Russia, Izyum and Kobyansk. Russia confirmed the withdrawal of its forces from the two towns, saying this would allow them to “regroup”.
Izyum Mayor Valery Marchenko said residents would be able to return to the town in about 10 days for the first time since Russia seized it in March.
He told the BBC that two-thirds of the population had fled, but most wanted to return despite widespread destruction and a lack of power, water or communications.
He said that Izyum was probably the largest logistics center of the Russian army, because it was a gateway to Sloviansk and Kramatorsk in the Donbass region, where Russia wanted to advance.
But Russia still controls about a fifth of the country, and few imagine a quick end to the war.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov warned of a possible Russian counterattack.
“The counterattack liberates territory, and then you have to take control of it and prepare to defend it,” Reznikov said.