Russia bombs 2 Ukrainian regions into darkness while freezing weather closes in

By Veronika Melkozerova | 01/08/2026 12:59 PM EST

“Deteriorating weather conditions create additional stress on critical infrastructure. We are working to minimize the consequences of bad weather,” said the Ukrainian prime minister.

Communal workers clean debris in the courtyard of a damaged residential building next to destroyed cars following a drone attack in Dnipro.

Freezing weather is coming to Ukraine over the next three days, with temperatures forecast to drop to minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit during the night, when Russia often launches massive missile and drone attacks. Mykola Synelnykov/AFP via Getty Images

KYIV — The Russian army attacked Ukraine with more than 90 killer drones in the early hours of Thursday morning, causing complete blackouts in the key industrial regions of Dnipro and Zaporizhzhia, Kyiv’s energy ministry reported.

“While energy workers managed to restore power in the Zaporizhzhia region in the morning, some 800,000 households in the nearby Dnipro region were still without electricity and heating on Thursday morning,” Artem Nekrasov, acting energy minister of Ukraine, said during a morning briefing.

In Dnipro, eight coal mines stopped working because of a power outage. All the miners were safely evacuated to the surface, Nekrasov added. Power outages were also reported in Chernihiv, Kyiv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Poltava and other regions.

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Freezing weather is coming to Ukraine over the next three days, with temperatures forecast to drop to minus 20 degrees Celsius (minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit) during the night, when Russia often launches massive missile and drone attacks.

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