Russian troops have resumed their attacks on Ukraine's energy facilities, as reported by Artem Nekrasov, the country's Deputy Minister of Energy.
As of February 2, due to Russian attacks, power outages have affected residents of Kharkiv, Sumy, Dnipropetrovsk, and Cherkasy regions.
“We continue to work on restoring damaged energy facilities. We are making every effort to ensure the reliable operation of the energy system,” he noted at a briefing.
Nekrasov also reported that on February 1, there was an attack on energy workers in the Dnipropetrovsk region. As a result of a strike by Russian drones on a service bus of one of the energy companies located near the "Ternovskaya" mine, 16 mine workers were killed and 14 were injured.
Due to the tense situation in Ukraine's energy system, authorities are forced to resort to emergency power outages. “As soon as the situation stabilizes, we will return to the previously scheduled power supply schedules,” added the Ministry of Energy representative.
The official also reported that more than 160 settlements in the Odessa, Mykolaiv, and Kirovohrad regions remain without electricity due to adverse weather conditions.
On January 29, U.S. President Donald Trump stated that he had asked Vladimir Putin to temporarily refrain from shelling Kyiv and other cities in Ukraine due to severe frosts. Later, the Kremlin confirmed that Trump indeed asked Putin to refrain from attacks for a week, until February 1, in order to create conditions for negotiations. According to Ukrainian authorities, Russian troops did indeed suspend strikes on energy infrastructure, but continued attacks on civilian facilities.
A new round of negotiations between Moscow, Kyiv, and Washington was expected to take place on February 1 in Abu Dhabi. However, on the eve of the meeting, Volodymyr Zelensky announced that the next trilateral negotiations are scheduled for February 4 and 5 in Abu Dhabi.
