Ukrainian drone strikes cut power to hundreds of thousands in
Russia-occupied southern Ukraine
[January 19, 2026]
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian drone strikes damaged energy networks in
Russia-occupied parts of southern Ukraine, leaving hundreds of thousands
of people without power on Sunday, according to Kremlin-installed
authorities there.
Meanwhile, Moscow has kept up its hammering of Ukraine’s energy grid in
overnight attacks that killed at least two people, according to
Ukrainian officials.
More than 200,000 households in the Russia-held part of Ukraine’s
southern Zaporizhzhia region had no electricity on Sunday, according to
the Kremlin-installed local governor.
In a Telegram post, Yevgeny Balitsky said that nearly 400 settlements
have had their supply cut, because of damage to power networks from
Ukrainian drone strikes.
Russia has hammered Ukraine’s power grid, especially in winter,
throughout the nearly four-year war. The strikes aim to weaken
Ukrainians’ will to resist in a strategy that Kyiv officials call
“weaponizing winter.”
Russia targeted energy infrastructure in Odesa region overnight on
Sunday, according to Ukraine’s Emergency Service. A fire broke out and
was promptly extinguished.
At least six people were wounded in the Dnipropetrovsk region from
Russian attacks, the emergency service said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a Telegram post that
repairing the country’s energy system remains challenging, “but we are
doing everything we can to restore everything as quickly as possible.”
He said that two people were killed in overnight attacks across the
country that struck Sumy, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, Khmelnytskyi
and Odesa.
In total, more than 1,300 attack drones, 1,050 guided aerial bombs and
29 missiles of various types were used by Russia to strike Ukraine this
week, Zelenskyy said.
U.S. talks
“If Russia deliberately delays the diplomatic process, the world’s
response should be decisive: more help for Ukraine and more pressure on
the aggressor," Zelenskyy said.
He spoke the day after a Ukrainian delegation arrived in the United
States for talks on a U.S.-led diplomatic push to end the war.
On Friday, Zelenskyy said that the delegation would try to finalize with
U.S. officials documents for a proposed peace settlement that relate to
postwar security guarantees and economic recovery.
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Snow covered, damaged Russian military vehicles are on display in
downtown Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem
Lukatsky)
If American officials approve the proposals, the U.S. and Ukraine
could sign the documents next week at the World Economic Forum in
Davos, Switzerland, Zelenskyy said at a Kyiv news conference with
Czech President Petr Pavel. Trump plans to be in Davos, according to
organizers.
Russia would still need to be consulted on the proposals.
Drones strike Russian Caucasus
Separately, in Russia’s Caucasus mountains, two children and an
adult were wounded overnight as debris from a Ukrainian drone fell
on a five-story residential building in North Ossetia, according to
the regional governor.
Seventy people had to be evacuated from the building, in the town of
Beslan, and there was damage to its roof and windows, Gov. Sergei
Menyaylo said in a Telegram post on Sunday morning.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said that its forces shot down or
suppressed 63 Ukrainian drones overnight over Russia and the
occupied Crimean Peninsula. One person was hospitalized in Russia’s
Krasnodar region east of Crimea following a drone strike, local
authorities said.
Nuclear plant repairs
Ukrainian crews have started repair works on the backup power line
connecting the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant to the power grid,
under a ceasefire brokered by the International Atomic Energy
Agency, the Vienna-based U.N. organization said in an X post on
Sunday.
The fate of the plant, occupied by Russia and the largest in Europe,
is a central issue in ongoing U.S.-brokered peace talks.
“Crucial repair works on the essential back up Ferosplavna-1 330 kV
power line connecting Ukraine’s ZNPP to the grid have begun under
another IAEA-brokered ceasefire,” the agency said in the post.
The 330-kilovolt power line, which was damaged and disconnected
because of fighting, is crucial to supplying the plant with
electricity.
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