Power restored to Ukraine's Odesa following major Russian attack on energy infrastructure

Around 50 towns in Ukraine's Odesa region were left without power on Saturday morning following an overnight Russian drone attack on energy infrastructure, according to regional authorities.

Ukrainian private energy firm DTEK reported that power has since been restored to the 240,000 households affected.

Regional governor Oleh Kiper said that besides energy infrastructure, two residential buildings and a hotel were damaged. One person, a 47-year-old woman, was injured.

Power was also restored to over 800,000 Kyiv residents on Saturday, following a separate attack by Russia on the Ukrainian power grid a day earlier, which caused blackouts across much of the country.

DTEK that "the main work to restore the power supply" had been completed, but that some localiSed outages were still affecting the Ukrainian capital following Friday’s "massive" Russian attacks.

Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko described the attack as “one of the largest concentrated strikes” against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

Ukraine’s air force said Saturday that its air defenses intercepted or jammed 54 of 78 Russian drones launched against Ukraine overnight, while Russia’s defence ministry said it had shot down 42 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory.

Over the past day, at least four people were killed and 18 injured in Russian attacks on Ukraine, according to regional authorities.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday accused Russia of "taking advantage" of the world focusing its attentions on the Middle East to intensity attacks on Ukraine and target energy facilities. He said "this is a new record of Russian cowardice – to intensify terrorist attacks at such a moment, to strike at the lives of our people."

"There can be only one response to this," he added, "and that is more force, more air defence to protect our critical infrastructure and more pressure on Russia to make them truly accountable for everything they do."

The energy sector has been a key battleground since Russia launched its all-out invasion more than three years ago.

Each year, Russia has tried to cripple the Ukrainian power grid before the bitter winter season, apparently hoping to erode public morale. Winter temperatures run from late October through March, with January and February the coldest months.