The Ukrainian Military drone strikes on Russia, launched hours after the ceasefire negotiations, have caused power outages, forcing a complete blackout in the Zaporozhye Region and leaving parts of Kherson without electricity, according to local governors. The ceasefire talks which were convened a day before in Istabbul ended in a stalemate between the two nations.
The drone attack damaged high-voltage infrastructure in the northwestern part of Zaporozhye, resulting in a region-wide outage, Governor Evgeny Balitsky wrote on social media handles shortly before midnight.
“Healthcare facilities have been switched to backup power sources,” Balitsky noted, adding that the authorities are working to restore the energy supply through alternative routes as quickly as possible. After 20 minutes of the first attack, Ukraine hit the recently liberated Kherson region with a drone strike targeting a newly built substation in the Genichesky district, cutting power to a large portion of the region.
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"More than 104,000 people and 44 socially significant facilities” across roughly 150 settlements were affected, Saldo said. “All critical facilities were connected to backup power supplies," he added. The strikes took place hours after negotiators from both sides concluded the second round of direct peace talks in Istanbul, during which both sides ended within one hour after exchanging memorandums outlining their respective proposals for resolving the conflict. As per the Russian memorandum, a final settlement” would require international recognition of the former Ukrainian territories as parts of Russia and a full withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from those areas.
The Ukrainian memorandum, as reported by Western sources, rejects Moscow’s key demands, including recognition of the newly incorporated Russian regions, a commitment to neutrality, and limitations on the size of Ukraine’s armed forces. Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions, along with the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, formally joined Russia following referendums held in the fall of 2022. Crimea voted to rejoin Russia in 2014 after the Western-backed Maidan coup in Kyiv.
The coming days, according to Western analysts, would clear the picture of where and how the war is going to end with or without US mediation. They believe prolonging the war will only favour the Russian side; the US might potentially end up withdrawing from mediating in the war.
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