What changed
Russian strikes damaged energy infrastructure in four Ukrainian regions, leaving hundreds of thousands of homes without power. More than 60,000 people in Dnipropetrovsk were still without electricity by early evening, while two people, including a 13-year-old girl, were killed in Vinnytsia. A separate Ukrainian strike set fire to a major missile-fuel producer in Russia’s Rostov region and damaged four production facilities.
Why it matters
Ukraine’s electricity crisis is now colliding with a narrow humanitarian window in Kherson. Emergency power cuts are affecting the country, including Kyiv, where water supplies have also been disrupted. Repairs restored most connections in Dnipropetrovsk, but the remaining outages show how quickly a damaged network can leave tens of thousands waiting in the dark.
The Kherson ceasefire has offered something rarer than quiet: a route out. Residents of Russian-occupied Oleshky, trapped since the city was occupied in February 2022, were able to leave through Russian-controlled territory, southern Russia, Belarus and Ukraine’s northern border. The oldest evacuee was 94; the youngest was one.
That pause is due to end at 22:59 Ukrainian time on Sunday. Once it does, the safety of further evacuations becomes much less certain. Oleshky sits just 5km from Ukrainian military positions, with mined escape routes and drone attacks already part of the danger surrounding the city.
The strikes also sharpen Ukraine’s plea for Patriot missile systems. Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia was exploiting a shortage of ballistic-missile interceptors and called for faster support from the US, Europe and other partners. The consequences of the reported damage in Rostov, and the scale and duration of further disruption to Ukraine’s infrastructure, remain unclear.
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