Hundreds of thousands without power in Ukraine after Russian strikes, Zelenskyy says
LONDON -- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a social media post on Sunday morning that "hundreds of thousands" of Ukrainians were without electricity across multiple regions following Russian missile and drone attacks on the country's energy infrastructure.
"Since yesterday, all our services have been working to restore the supply of electricity, heat and water to the regions after Russian attacks on the energy infrastructure," the president said. "The situation is still complex -- hundreds of thousands of families remain without electricity in Mykolaiv, Odessa, Kherson, Chernihiv, Donetsk, Sumy and Dnipro regions."
Russia's nightly attacks have focused on energy and other critical infrastructure targets in recent months, according to Ukrainian officials, coinciding with the onset of winter weather.
"Russia is prolonging the war and wants to cause as much harm as possible to our people," Zelenskyy added, reporting that Russia has launched more than 1,500 strike drones, some 900 aerial bombs and 46 missiles into Ukraine over the past week.
The attacks continued overnight into Sunday. Ukraine's air force said Russia launched one missile and 138 drones into the country overnight, of which 110 drones were shot down or suppressed. The missile and 10 attack drones impacted across six locations, the air force said.
Russia's Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said its forces downed at least 141 Ukrainian drones overnight into Sunday morning. Moscow's troops also shot down 143 drones over the course of Saturday, the ministry said.
The latest exchanges came shortly after Zelenskyy said Ukrainian negotiators were preparing for another week of meetings with U.S. and European representatives over a possible peace deal framework to end Russia's full-scale invasion.
"Ukraine needs peace on decent terms and we are ready to work as constructively as possible," the president said in his social media post on Sunday. "These days will be filled with diplomacy. It's very important that it brings results. I count on the support of our partners."
In a later social media post, Zelenskyy said he had arrived in Berlin for planned talks. "Today we are planning a meeting with the American negotiating team," he wrote.
"We are focusing on how to reliably guarantee security for Ukraine so that the experience of the Budapest Memorandum and the Russian invasion is never repeated," Zelenskyy added. "We are counting on constructive negotiations."
ABC News' Victoria Beaule contributed to this report.
