{"id":559486,"date":"2025-11-09T14:13:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-09T14:13:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/559486\/"},"modified":"2025-11-09T14:13:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-09T14:13:12","slug":"ukraine-hits-2-russian-cities-disrupting-power-and-heating","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/559486\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine hits 2 Russian cities, disrupting power and heating"},"content":{"rendered":"

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) \u2014 Ukrainian strikes disrupted power and heating<\/a> to two major Russian cities near the Ukrainian border, local Russian officials reported Sunday.<\/p>\n

The report comes as Russia and Ukraine have traded almost daily assaults<\/a> on each other\u2019s energy infrastructure and U.S.-led diplomatic efforts<\/a> to stop the nearly four-year war<\/a> have not advanced. <\/p>\n

Elsewhere, Ukraine\u2019s top diplomat accused Moscow of deliberately endangering nuclear safety, as he said Russia\u2019s mass drone and missile attack on Friday struck substations that power two nuclear power plants.<\/p>\n

And in Russia, the Kremlin spokesman said Moscow intended to honor its obligations under a global nuclear test ban, despite a recent order by President Vladimir Putin<\/a> to study the possibility of resuming atomic tests. <\/p>\n

Power knocked out in two Russian cities<\/p>\n

A drone strike temporarily caused blackouts and cut heating to parts of Voronezh, regional Gov. Alexander Gusev said. He said several drones were electronically jammed during the night over the city, home to just over 1 million people, sparking a fire at a local utility facility that was quickly extinguished. <\/p>\n

Russian and Ukrainian news channels on Telegram claimed the strike targeted a local thermal power plant.<\/p>\n

A missile strike late on Saturday also caused \u201cserious damage\u201d to power and heating systems supplying the city of Belgorod, with some 20,000 households affected, local Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov reported the following morning. <\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s defense ministry said Sunday that its forces destroyed or intercepted 44 Ukrainian drones during the night that flew over the Bryansk and Rostov regions in southwestern Russia. The statement made no mention of either the Voronezh or Belgorod provinces, nor did it specify how many drones Ukraine launched. <\/p>\n

Local authorities in the Rostov region on Sunday reported on hourslong blackouts in the city of Taganrog, home to some 240,000 people, blaming them on an emergency shutdown of a power line. They did not specify the cause, though local media claimed a nearby transformer substation caught fire.<\/p>\n

Months of Ukrainian long-range drone strikes<\/a> on Russian refineries have aimed to deprive Moscow of the oil export revenue<\/a> it needs to pursue the war. Meanwhile, Kyiv and its western allies say Russia is trying to cripple the Ukrainian power grid<\/a> and deny civilians access to heat, light and running water for a fourth consecutive winter, in what Ukrainian officials call \u201cweaponizing\u201d the biting cold. <\/p>\n

Strikes endanger power supply to nuclear plants <\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s mass drone and missile strikes Friday hit power substations that supply two of Ukraine\u2019s nuclear power plants, according to Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha. <\/p>\n

\u201cRussia once again targeted substations that power the Khmelnytskyi and Rivne nuclear power plants,\u201d Sybiha said in a statement on X late Saturday. \u201cThese were not accidental but well-planned strikes. Russia is deliberately endangering nuclear safety in Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sybiha called for an urgent meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency board of governors to respond to the risks posed by the attacks. <\/p>\n

Moscow\u2019s massive attacks on Ukraine\u2019s electricity infrastructure<\/a> last winter have heightened scrutiny over the Ukrainian Energy Ministry\u2019s apparent failure to protect the country\u2019s most critical energy facilities near nuclear power sites, according to several current and former officials who spoke to the AP<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Saturday that work has begun on President Vladimir Putin\u2019s order to prepare plans for a possible Russian nuclear test<\/a>, according to state news agency Tass.<\/p>\n

Putin\u2019s order on Wednesday followed statements by Trump<\/a>, which appeared to suggest that Washington would restart its own atomic tests for the first time in three decades. <\/p>\n

Kremlin says Russia will abide by nuclear ban<\/p>\n

Russia will abide by its obligations under a global nuclear ban, the Kremlin spokesman said Sunday, following days of uncertainty over remarks by U.S. President Donald Trump<\/a> that appeared to suggest Washington might restart atomic tests after more than three decades. <\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s comments came after Russia announced it had tested a new atomic-powered<\/a> and nuclear-capable underwater drone and a new nuclear-powered cruise missile.<\/a> But Moscow did not announce any tests of its nuclear weapons, which last occurred in 1990.<\/p>\n

\u201cPutin has repeatedly said that Russia is committed to its obligation to end nuclear tests, and that we have no intention\u201d of conducting them, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. <\/p>\n

Earlier this week, Putin ordered officials to study the possibility<\/a> of resuming nuclear testing, though Russia said it would not do so unless the U.S. did so first.<\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s Lavrov says he\u2019s ready to meet Rubio<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, Russia\u2019s top diplomat said Sunday that he was ready to meet U.S. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, to discuss the war in Ukraine and mending bilateral ties.<\/p>\n

\u201cSecretary of State Marco Rubio and I understand the need for regular communication,\u201d Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Russia\u2019s Ria state agency, weeks after efforts to organise a summit<\/a> between the Russian and U.S. leaders were put on ice.<\/p>\n

Lavrov on Sunday repeated that peace can\u2019t be achieved without \u201ctaking Russian interests into account,\u201d a phrase Moscow has used to signal it is standing firm in its maximalist demands for Ukraine.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KYIV, Ukraine (AP) \u2014 Ukrainian strikes disrupted power and heating to two major Russian cities near the Ukrainian…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":559487,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7654],"tags":[178518,7667,32,26934,2000,299,4179,2820,2301,8041,285,332,7659,7661,10243,657,7662,333,94469,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-559486","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ukraine","8":"tag-alexander-gusev","9":"tag-dmitry-peskov","10":"tag-donald-trump","11":"tag-energy-industry","12":"tag-eu","13":"tag-europe","14":"tag-general-news","15":"tag-marco-rubio","16":"tag-moscow","17":"tag-nuclear-weapons","18":"tag-politics","19":"tag-russia","20":"tag-russia-government","21":"tag-russia-ukraine-war","22":"tag-sergey-lavrov","23":"tag-ukraine","24":"tag-ukraine-government","25":"tag-vladimir-putin","26":"tag-vyacheslav-gladkov","27":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115520156897181411","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=559486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/559487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=559486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=559486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=559486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}