Russian strikes on Ukrainian critical infrastructure left around 40 per cent of the country without power.
Russia has intensified artillery and missile strikes across Ukraine's energy infrastructure in recent days as the onset of winter has increased demand. Disruption of electricity and gas supplies in winters would plunge Ukraine into difficult times.
Ukraine's electricity grid chief Volodymyr Kudrytskyi on Friday warned of hours-long power outages. The grid, named Ukrenergo, said freezing temperatures are putting additional pressure on energy networks.
"You always need to prepare for the worst. We understand that the enemy wants to destroy our power system in general, to cause long outages. We need to prepare for possible long outages, but at the moment we are introducing schedules that are planned and will do everything to ensure that the outages are not very long," said Kudrytskyi.
Ukraine's capital Kyiv is already facing a "huge deficit in electricity", Mayor Vitali Klitschko told The Associated Press. Some 1.5-2 million (15-20 lakh) people —about half of the city's population— are periodically plunged into darkness as authorities switch electricity from one district to another.
Russia pushing everyone into depression: Ukraine
Kyiv's Mayor Kudrytskyi said that Russian President Vladimir Putin's military planners apparently are hoping "to bring us, everyone, to depression", to make people feel unsafe and "to think about, maybe we give up".
But it will not work, he said.
"It is wrong, it is (a) wrong vision of Putin. After every rocket attack, I talk to the people, to simple civilians. They (are) not depressed. They were angry, angry and ready to stay and defend our houses, our families and our future," said Kudrytskyi.
Kudrytskyi added that the power situation at critical facilities such as hospitals and schools has been stabilised.
Those facilities were targeted overnight in the northeastern Kharkiv region, where energy equipment was damaged, according to governor Oleh Syniehubov. Eight people including energy crews and police were injured trying to clear up the debris, he said.
Russian barrage raises concerns ahead of winters
Russian attacks on Ukraine's energy and power facilities have fuelled fears of what the dead of winter will bring. Ukraine's energy infrastructure had again been targeted on Thursday, two days after Russia unleashed a nationwide barrage of more than 100 missiles and drones that knocked out power to 10 million (1 crore) people.
Those attacks have also affected neighbouring countries like Moldova, where a half-a-dozen cities across that country experienced temporary blackouts.
Latest fighting in Ukraine War
In the past 24 hours, Russian forces unleashed the breadth of their arsenal to attack Ukraine's southeast, employing drones, rockets, heavy artillery and warplanes that killed at least six civilians and wounded six others, the Ukraine's Ppresident's Volodymyr Zelenskyy's office said.
In the Zaporizhzhia region, part of which remains under Russian control, artillery pounded 10 towns and villages. The death toll from a Russian rocket attack on a residential building in the city of Vilniansk on Thursday climbed to 10 people, including three children.
In Nikopol, located across the Dnieper River from the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, 40 Russian missiles damaged several high-rise buildings, homes and a power line.
In the wake of its humiliating retreat from the southern city of Kherson, Moscow intensified its assault on the eastern Donetsk region, where Russia's Defence Ministry said on Friday its forces took control of the village of Opytne and repelled a Ukrainian counteroffensive to reclaim the settlements of Solodke, Volodymyrivka, and Pavlivka.
The city of Bakhmut, a key target of Russia's attempt to seize the whole region of Donetsk, remains the scene of heavy fighting, the regional governor said.
The Russian Defence Ministry also said Ukrainian troops were pushed back from Yahidne in Ukraine's eastern Kharkiv province, and Kuzemivka in the neighbouring Luhansk province. Donetsk and Luhansk were among the four Ukrainian provinces illegally annexed by Moscow in September, together with Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
At the same time, Moscow is fortifying its defences in the southern region to thwart further Ukrainian advances. Russian troops have built new trench systems near the border of Crimea, as well as near the Siversky-Donets River between Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts, according to a British Ministry of Defence report.
(With AP inputs)
