Russian attacks leave one million Ukrainians without power

Kyiv: More than a million Ukrainians were left without power in freezing cold temperatures on Thursday after a massive nationwide Russian missile and...

Kyiv: More than a million Ukrainians were left without power in freezing cold temperatures on Thursday after a massive nationwide Russian missile and drone attack. Ukraine is bracing for what could be its toughest winter of the almost three-year war as Moscow steps up its aerial bombardment of the war-torn country and its troops advance on the frontlines in the east. "There are emergency blackouts all over the country due to the enemy's attack on our energy sector. There is no end in sight," said the CEO of the Yasno energy supplier Sergey Kovalenko. President Volodymyr Zelensky's chief of staff said Russia was "continuing their tactics of terror", seeking to plunge Ukrainian civilians into darkness and cut of heating in the coldest months of the year.

"They stockpiled missiles for attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure, for warfare against civilians during... winter," Andriy Yermak said in a post on Telegram. The combined missile and drone attack, launched in waves throughout the early hours of Thursday, knocked out electricity for more than a million subscribers in Ukraine's west, hundreds of kilometres from the front lines. "As of now, 523,000 subscribers in Lviv region are without electricity," regional head Maksym Kozytskyi said on social media.'Massive enemy attack'  The western region, which borders EU and NATO member Poland, has been spared the worst of the fighting of Russia's 33-month invasion but has been targeted in Russian drone and missile attacks sporadically. Regional officials said at least another 280,000 were cut off in the western Rivne region and another 215,000 in the northwestern Volyn region, which also borders Poland. The full extent of the damage was still being assessed on Thursday morning, with Russian drones also having targeted the capital Kviv, the northeastern city of Kharkiv and port city of Odesa on the Black Sea and other regions reporting power outages.

"Power engineers are working to ensure backup power supply schemes where possible. They have already started restoration work where the security situation allows," the energy ministry said.

It said it was the 11th massive Russian attack on Ukraine's civilian energy infrastructure this year.

In an early morning warning posted on social media as the strikes were unfolding, Ukraine's Energy Minister German Galushchenko said facilities were "under massive enemy attack".