Blackouts grow as Kremlin hits Ukraine’s grid

ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine — A missile strike seriously damaged a key energy facility in Ukraine's capital region, the country's grid operator said Saturday as the Russian military strove to cut power in far-flung populated areas while also defending against Ukrainian counterattacks in occupied regions.

Regions of southern Ukraine that Russian President Vladimir Putin illegally annexed saw more heavy fighting as Ukrainian soldiers pressed a ground campaign, and Russian forces exploded long-range missiles and Iranian-made drones.

Russia has lost ground in the nearly seven weeks since Ukraine's armed forces opened their southern counteroffensive. This week, the Kremlin launched what is believed to be its largest coordinated air and missile raids since Russia's invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.

Kyiv region Gov. Oleksiy Kuleba said the missile that hit a power site Saturday morning didn't kill or wound anyone. Citing security, Ukrainian officials declined to identify the site, one of many infrastructure targets the Russian military tried to destroy after an Oct. 8 truck bomb explosion damaged the bridge that links Russia to the annexed Crimean Peninsula.

Ukrainian electricity transmission company Ukrenergo said repair crews were working to restore electricity service, but warned residents about further outages. Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of the Ukrainian president's office, urged residents of the capital and three neighboring regions to conserve energy.

“Putin may hope that by increasing the misery of the Ukrainian people, President (Volodymyr) Zelenskyy may be more inclined to negotiate a settlement that allows Russia to retain some stolen territory in the east or Crimea,” said Ian Williams, a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a policy organization in Washington. “A quick look at history shows that the strategic bombing of civilians is an ineffective

way to achieve a political aim.”

This week's wide-ranging retaliatory attacks, which included the use of self-destructing explosive drones from Iran, killed dozens of people. The strikes hit residential buildings as well as infrastructure such as power stations in Kyiv, Lviv in western Ukraine, and other cities that had seen comparatively few strikes in recent months.

In the Zaporizhzhia region,

Gov. Oleksandr Starukh said the Russian military carried out strikes with kamikaze drones from Iran and long-range S-300 missiles. Some experts said the Russian military's use of the surface-to-air missiles may reflect shortages of dedicated precision weapons for hitting ground targets.

The neighboring Kherson region, one of the first areas of Ukraine to fall to Russia after the invasion and which Putin also

illegally designated as Russian territory last month, remained the focus of a Ukrainian counteroffensive.

Kyiv's army has reported recapturing 75 villages and towns there in the last month, but said the momentum had slowed, with the fighting settling into the sort of grueling back-and-forth that characterized Russia's months-long offensive to conquer Ukraine's eastern Donbas region.

Leo Correa/Associated Press Police officers examine the site where several vehicles were destroyed by a Russian attack in Zaporizhzhia. Residents of Kyiv and neighboring regions were urged to reduce their energy use.