Russian Strikes Cut Power to 600,000 in Eastern Ukraine

Regional military chief Oleksandr Hanzha said hospitals had switched to diesel generators and electric public transport had stopped in Dnipro. He said repair crews faced continuing Russian shelling. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reported widespread outages elsewhere, including 140 apartment buildings without heating in the Zhytomyr region.

Further strikes injured at least four people in Kremenchuk, in the Poltava region, according to regional administrator Vitali Dyakivnych. A residential building and a hotel were hit, and 15 people were rescued from damaged structures. In Odesa, officials said drones struck electricity distribution centers and other infrastructure, causing further outages.

The attacks followed Zelenskyy’s accusation that Moscow was seeking to exert maximum pressure before the Abu Dhabi talks, scheduled for November 10-11. In a CBS 60 Minutes interview broadcast November 8, Trump said Ukraine would end up with a “little bit different shape,” without explaining what he meant. Kyiv has said it will not permanently give up territory, though Zelenskyy has advocated freezing the conflict and seeking security guarantees. Russia has rejected calls for a cease-fire, insisting on a comprehensive deal that includes its demands over Ukrainian territory.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said France would take part in Abu Dhabi, pushing back against concerns that Europe could be excluded. US envoy Jared Kushner said the talks would respect every country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said some progress had been made on a possible postwar security arrangement, but nothing had been finalized.

Separately, Ukraine’s Energoatom said the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhya nuclear plant had regained external power late on November 8. The company called conditions at the facility “extremely dangerous” and said risks to nuclear safety remained while it was under Russian occupation. It described the outage as the 16th complete loss of external power since the beginning of 2026. The International Atomic Energy Agency’s Rafael Grossi urged those responsible for actions threatening nuclear facilities or staff to stop.