Overview
- Local officials said Ukrainian missiles and drones cut electricity and heating in Belgorod and Voronezh, with roughly 20,000 Belgorod households affected and a utility fire reported in Voronezh.
- Ukraine’s grid operator imposed rolling restrictions after large Russian missile and drone barrages damaged energy facilities, with at least seven people killed and about 100,000 customers in Kharkiv still without power.
- Ukraine’s energy company Tsentrenergo halted operations at plants in the Kyiv and Kharkiv regions after what it called the most destructive strikes on its facilities since 2022.
- Kyiv reported that Russia targeted substations supplying the Khmelnytskyi and Rivne nuclear plants as IAEA chief Rafael Grossi urged maximum restraint to avoid a radiological incident.
- On the Pokrovsk front, Ukrainian forces said they repelled 97 assaults in the past day and denied encirclement while acknowledging supply routes are strained, and Russia’s Sergei Lavrov said he is ready to meet U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio but insisted Moscow’s core demands remain unchanged.