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Ukraine is racing to restore power and heating after a massive wave of Russian strikes crippled its energy infrastructure, with the state power company reporting its generation capacity has fallen to “zero.”Russia intensified its assault overnight into Saturday, launching hundreds of drones and missiles against energy facilities across multiple regions. Major electric and thermal energy producer in Ukraine Centerenergo confirmed its electric and thermal power generation had been completely knocked out, being “down to zero”.. “An unprecedented number of missiles and countless drones—several per minute—targeted the same thermal power plants we had only recently restored after the 2024 attacks,” the company said in a statement, as quoted by AFP.
Meanwhile, national grid operator Ukrenergo announced scheduled power cuts lasting eight to sixteen hours across most regions on Sunday as repairs continue. Energy minister Svitlana Grynchuk described the barrage as “the war’s most challenging night,” noting that Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Poltava, Chernihiv, and Sumy are still facing recurring outages.Nuclear substations supplying the Khmelnytskyi and Rivne plants were also targeted by drones in western Ukraine. Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha urged the UN nuclear watchdog to intervene and called on China and India to pressure Moscow to halt the strikes.Ukrainian forces intercepted 406 drones and nine missiles out of the 458 drones and 45 missiles launched by Russia, according to the military. Experts warn that repeated infrastructure strikes could lead to widespread heating failures during the winter months.The latest assault marks the ninth major attack on Ukraine’s gas infrastructure since October. The Kyiv School of Economics estimates that half of the country’s natural gas production has been affected. Energy expert Oleksandr Kharchenko urged cities to prepare contingency plans for heating system breakdowns, particularly if temperatures drop below minus 10°C.In response, Ukraine has continued targeting Russian fuel facilities to disrupt exports. Moscow has extended restrictions on petrol exports until the end of October to curb domestic price surges caused by Ukrainian strikes on refineries.
