Russian strikes black out 600,000 homes in Dnipropetrovsk, 250,000 in Kharkiv

Russia hammered Ukraine's power grid overnight, knocking out electricity for hundreds of thousands of homes. DTEK, the country's biggest private energy provider, said on Telegram that a night attack damaged key energy facilities in the central Dnipropetrovsk region, leaving more than 600,000 residents without power. Crews are scrambling to reconnect them, but DTEK warned the job is complicated by repeated attacks.

The northeastern Kharkiv region took a separate hit. Mykola Baksheyev, mayor of the city of Zlatopil, said on social media that a Russian drone struck a critical infrastructure facility there, cutting power to nearly 250,000 customers across the region. Repair work is underway, he added, but no one can yet say when the lights come back on.

It's the second straight night of heavy strikes on Ukraine's energy system. A day earlier, the energy ministry said a massive attack plunged residents across five regions into darkness and badly disrupted electricity transmission in Kyiv. Russia has pounded the grid throughout its invasion, and Ukraine is now walking into another wartime winter with temperatures already hovering around freezing.

President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Moscow of deliberately turning up the pressure ahead of US-brokered trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi set for Nov 10 and 11. In his telling, the escalating barrages are meant to give the Kremlin leverage at the table.

For now, the immediate battle is at the breaker box. Utility crews are racing short winter daylight and the threat of fresh drone and missile waves to restore supply to roughly 850,000 households hit across the two regions. With the heating season biting, every hour without power raises the stakes.