Kremlin-installed authorities in the occupied part of Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region said Ukrainian drone strikes damaged local power networks, cutting electricity to more than 200,000 households in nearly 400 settlements. Yevgeny Balitsky, the Moscow-appointed governor, reported the outages in a Telegram post, saying repair crews were working to restore service but warning that the damage was extensive.

Ukrainian officials, meanwhile, said Russia continued to target Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in overnight attacks. Ukraine’s Emergency Service reported damage to facilities in the Odesa region, where a fire caused by the strikes was later extinguished. At least six people were wounded in the Dnipropetrovsk region, according to emergency officials.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said two people were killed in attacks across several regions, including Sumy, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, Khmelnytskyi and Odesa. In a separate statement, he said restoring the energy system remains difficult but that engineers and emergency workers are making progress in reconnecting communities. He added that Russia launched more than 1,300 drones, 1,050 guided aerial bombs and 29 missiles against Ukraine over the past week.

Energy infrastructure has been a repeated target throughout the conflict, causing recurring blackouts and forcing authorities to introduce emergency power cuts during colder months. Analysts say the continued strikes on power systems are likely to deepen humanitarian challenges, particularly in frontline regions.

The escalation comes as Ukraine pursues renewed diplomatic engagement with the United States. Zelenskyy said a Ukrainian delegation has arrived in Washington for talks on a U.S.-backed effort to advance proposals on postwar security guarantees and economic recovery. He said the documents could be finalized in the coming days if approved by U.S. officials, but stressed that any agreement would ultimately require broader international involvement, including consultations with Russia.

Russian regions also reported drone-related incidents. In the North Ossetia region, local authorities said debris from a drone damaged a five-story apartment building in the town of Beslan, injuring two children and one adult and forcing the evacuation of about 70 residents. Russia’s Defense Ministry said air defenses shot down or intercepted 63 Ukrainian drones overnight over Russian territory and the occupied Crimean Peninsula. Officials in Russia’s Krasnodar region reported that one person was hospitalized after a separate strike.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said Ukrainian crews have begun repairs on a backup power line connecting the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant to the national grid under a ceasefire brokered by the agency. The damaged 330-kilovolt line is considered critical to ensuring the plant’s external power supply, and the IAEA has repeatedly warned that reliable electricity connections are essential for nuclear safety at the site.