Russian drone attack cuts power in Ukraine

Thousands of people in central Ukraine were left without electricity on Tuesday following a countrywide Russian attack involving more than 130 drones that damaged critical infrastructure.

Kyiv and Moscow have recently escalated cross-border drone and missile attacks despite a US-led proposal for a 30-day ceasefire to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The governor of the Zaporizhzhia region, which the Kremlin claims as part of Russia, said around 3,000 people were cut off from the grid following the attack, which he said damaged critical infrastructure.

The governor of the neighbouring Dnipropetrovsk region, on which Russian forces have been closing in, said the barrage resulted in a fire at another critical infrastructure facility.

In Kyiv, authorities said the debris from a downed Russian drone landed in the courtyard of a school at the beginning of the school day. Pupils were in shelters at the time of the attack, they added.

The Ukrainian air force said it had downed 63 out of 137 Russian drones.

Russia’s defence ministry meanwhile said that 46 Ukrainian drones used in overnight attacks had been neutralised.

The strikes, which targeted several regions of Russia, wounded six people, according to local authorities.

The attacks came shortly before Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump were due to hold talks on a potential ceasefire to the fighting in Ukraine.

Russia’s forces occupy swathes of its neighbour’s territory.

The 46 Ukrainian drones were “destroyed or intercepted” over the regions of Belgorod, Bryansk and Kursk near the Ukraine border, as well as over Orlov, the ministry said.

In the city of Belgorod, a man was seriously wounded by falling drone debris, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.

Five people were wounded in Kursk when drones struck near a truck transporting bread, interim governor Alexander Khinstein posted on Telegram.