 "Kyiv experiences power outages after Russian drone and missile attacks. Reuters")
Most parts of Ukraine witnessed blackouts after Russia’s drone barrage crippled the country’s energy infrastructure. The attack comes ahead of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House on Friday.
Eight Ukrainian regions experienced blackouts after the barrage, Ukraine’s national energy operator, Ukrenergo, said. DTEK, the country’s largest private energy company, reported outages in the capital, Kyiv, and said it had to stop its natural gas extraction in the central Poltava region due to the strikes.
Zelenskyy claimed that Russia had fired over 300 drones and 37 missiles at Ukraine overnight, accusing Moscow of deploying cluster munitions and conducting repeated strikes on the same target to hit emergency crews and engineers working to repair the grid.
“This fall, the Russians are using every single day to strike our energy infrastructure,” Zelenskyy said on Telegram.
Meanwhile, Ukraine has also been conducting airstrikes against oil refineries and related infrastructure that are crucial for Russia’s economy and war effort. Ukraine’s general staff said Thursday that its forces struck the Saratov oil refinery, in the Russian region of the same name, for the second time in two months. The facility is located some 300 miles from the Ukrainian border.
Trump talks to Putin
On Thursday, Trump said he had a “lengthy” phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, just a day before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is scheduled to meet the US president.
“I am speaking to President Putin now. The conversation is ongoing, a lengthy one, and I will report the contents, as will President Putin, at its conclusion. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” Trump said on his Truth Social network.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsThe US president said he would meet Putin in Hungary by the end of this month, with Trump administration officials already making arrangements for such a meeting.
The Kremlin welcomed the “extremely frank and trustful” call and said it was immediately preparing for the summit.
“I believe great progress was made with today’s telephone conversation,” Trump said on his Truth Social network, saying he and Putin would meet to “see if we can bring this ‘inglorious’ War, between Russia and Ukraine, to an end.”
With inputs from agencies