Russian strikes knocked out electricity to hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian households on Sunday, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, while Russian authorities reported significant damage to an industrial facility following a Ukrainian drone attack in the Nizhny Novgorod region.
Although a six-day local ceasefire around the Russian-controlled Ukrainian town of Oleshky remained in place on its final day, fighting continued elsewhere along the front line, with both sides maintaining long-range aerial attacks.
Zelenskyy said Russia had targeted power infrastructure in four Ukrainian regions overnight, cutting electricity supplies to hundreds of thousands of households.
“The intensity of the strikes is very high, and the Russians are seeking to maximally exploit the deficit of ballistic missile interceptors,” he said in a statement on Telegram.
He added that Ukrainian forces had struck the Kamensky plant in Russia’s Rostov region, which he said was involved in manufacturing Russian missiles.
In western Ukraine, Ternopil regional governor Taras Pastukh said a Russian attack on infrastructure in a town in the region had disrupted electricity supplies to several localities. Emergency crews were working to restore power.
Moscow did not comment on the reported Ukrainian strike in Rostov. However, Nizhny Novgorod Governor Gleb Nikitin said a large-scale overnight Ukrainian drone attack had caused “significant damage” to an industrial facility.
Nikitin did not identify the facility, but the region is home to the NORSI oil refinery, one of Russia’s largest.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces had intercepted and destroyed 235 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions overnight.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Air Force said it had shot down 371 of the 433 long-range drones launched by Russia since Saturday evening. In its morning update, it reported that dozens of Russian drones were still airborne as of Sunday morning. Six separate drone alerts had been issued in Kyiv since midnight.
Fuel Supplies Under Scrutiny
Although Nizhny Novgorod’s regional government did not identify the facility hit in the attack, it said it was taking measures to ensure fuel supplies to gas stations.
Authorities urged motorists to “buy fuel only as needed and avoid panic buying,” Interfax reported.
The warning suggests that the damaged facility may have been connected to the region’s oil-refining or fuel-supply infrastructure. Kyiv did not immediately claim responsibility for the attack.
On Friday, Russia said Ukraine had resumed strikes on its oil refineries, accusing Kyiv of ignoring a request by US President Donald Trump to halt such attacks. Trump has blamed the strikes for contributing to higher diesel prices ahead of next week’s US midterm elections.
Ukraine has said it supports a comprehensive ceasefire covering energy infrastructure, including its own heavily damaged power grid, but maintains that Moscow is unwilling to agree to such an arrangement.
In an interview with state television channel Vesti on Sunday, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, who oversees the energy sector, did not directly address the Nizhny Novgorod attack. He said, however, that Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries were worsening imbalances in global fuel markets and affecting prices.
