Ukrainian strikes have caused massive power outages in Russia’s western region of Belgorod.
Belgorod, a city of 330,000 people, has frequently been targeted by Ukrainian drones and rockets since the armed conflict between Moscow and Kiev began in 2022.
The regional governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said Friday that an overnight missile strike had caused “serious damage” to an unspecified infrastructure site. He added that there were no casualties and that first responders were at the scene.
Gladkov later said in a video message on his Telegram channel that as of 6am local time, outages were affecting 556,000 people across six municipalities. He added that around 2,000 apartment buildings had lost heating and nearly 200,000 people were without running water in their homes.
Belgorod’s temperature on Friday morning was around 2 °C (36 °F) and is expected to drop to −5 °C (23 °F) over the weekend.
Telegram news channels reported that air raid sirens were activated, followed shortly by a loud explosion. According to reports, a power plant may have been hit.
Russia has repeatedly accused Ukraine of striking civilian targets, including with weapons supplied by the West.
On the same night, Ukrainian officials reported drone strikes and blackouts in Kiev.
The Russian Defense Ministry has previously said that Moscow targets parts of the grid used to power Ukraine’s weapons manufacturing industry.