Russian Drone Strikes Leave Over 1 Million In Ukraine's Dnipro In Cold And Darkness

Russian drone strikes knocked out power across southern Zaporizhzhia and left more than 600,000 households without electricity in central Dnipropetrovsk, Ukrainian officials said on Thursday, in one of the most disruptive attacks on energy infrastructure in recent months.

The overnight bombardment came as United States-led diplomatic efforts intensified to halt the fighting nearly four years after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Kyiv and its Western allies say they are working on a framework for a potential peace settlement, though Moscow has given no public indication it is willing to compromise.

BREAKING:

A state of emergency has been declared in Dnipro.

After the Russian strikes on critical infrastructure, the city is experiencing a complete

blackout. Local authorities report that around 600,000 residents across the region remain without electricity. pic.twitter.com/I7her0hJhA

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) January 8, 2026

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the strikes, accusing Russia of deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure. “There is no military rationale for such strikes on energy facilities and infrastructure that leave people without electricity and heating in winter conditions,” Zelenskyy said in a post on social media.

Russia has repeatedly targeted Ukraine’s power grid since the invasion, a strategy Ukrainian officials describe as “weaponising winter” by depriving civilians of heat and running water during the cold months.

The Zaporizhzhia region, which had a prewar population of about 1.5 million, was without electricity for around four hours, the first region-wide blackout there since the start of the war. Emergency crews restored power later in the day. In Dnipropetrovsk, however, hundreds of thousands of homes remained without electricity on Thursday afternoon, private energy company DTEK said.

Zelenskyy urged Ukraine’s partners to respond more forcefully to what he called Russia’s abuse of civilians and infrastructure. He also said an agreement under which the United States would provide postwar security guarantees to Ukraine was “ready to be finalised,” and could be signed alongside US President Donald Trump once a peace deal is reached. Such guarantees, he said, would be aimed at deterring any future Russian aggression.

The Ukrainian leader added that Kyiv, Washington and European countries continue to discuss postwar reconstruction and development. Ukraine has already presented possible peace settlement options to US officials, who are expected to raise them with Russia. “We’re waiting for feedback on whether the enemy is truly ready to end the war,” Zelenskyy said.

Russia’s Defence Ministry, meanwhile, claimed its air defences shot down 66 Ukrainian drones overnight over Russian regions, the illegally annexed Crimea, the Black Sea and the Azov Sea.