Russia and Ukraine continued trading intense strikes on civilian and energy infrastructure overnight, less than a day after the parties signalled that peace negotiations were moving forward in U.S.-brokered talks.
Russia unleashed a major attack on Ukraine's energy facilities, knocking out electricity for over 500,000 after strikes on energy facilities in the Zhytomyr, Volyn, Mykolaiv, Poltava, Khmelnytskyi and Rivne regions, Ukraine's Energy Ministry said Friday .
Work has begun on emergency restoration where the security situation allows, the ministry added.
DTEK, one of Ukraine's largest private energy companies, said an unspecified thermal power plant had stopped generating electricity after Russian shelling.
Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion in 2022, DTEK's thermal power plants have been attacked more than 230 times, the company said in a post on Telegram early Friday.
Meanwhile, Russia's Ministry of Defense said that air defense forces intercepted and destroyed 443 Ukrainian drones overnight.
The latest attacks come after U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg on Wednesday for talks on how to end the conflict with Ukraine.
Following the meeting, Putin told Russian television that Moscow was ready to resume U.S.-mediated talks with Kyiv in November.
"The goal of these talks will be to ensure the security of Ukraine and Russia after reaching peace agreements, in their final form, not as a result of a temporary ceasefire for some short period of time. We are ready to resume these contacts to achieve this goal," Putin said, Reuters reported.
A so-called "energy ceasefire" announced by President Donald Trump on Oct. 11 has failed to yield any meaningful outcome.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said earlier this week that Ukraine refrained from attacking Russian energy targets for three days but later resumed attacks, citing Russia's continued attacks on its infrastructure.
Speaking to CNN late Thursday, Zelenskyy said he was ready for a ceasefire, but that Ukraine needed strong security guarantees.
