Ukraine restores power to hundreds of thousands after Russian strikes

Ukraine on Monday restored power to most of the households that lost electricity during overnight Russian strikes on the northern region of Sumy, the regional operator said.

The regions of Sumy and Kharkiv bordering Russia have seen intensified strikes, amid speculation of an upcoming Russian offensive in these areas.

“As of 12:00 pm (1000 GMT) on May 6, there are 15,240 (households) in the Sumy region without electricity as a result of the Russian attack,” the regional electricity operator said.

Over 400,000 households had lost power during the overnight strike, according to earlier estimates from the energy ministry.

Moscow has intensified strikes on Ukraine’s energy facilities, knocking out a significant chunk of production, and triggering blackouts and energy rationing across the country.

In the neighboring Kharkiv region “repeated strikes caused new damage to the power grids” leaving 32,600 households without electricity in the morning, the energy ministry said.

The Sumy region borders Russia and has been targeted throughout Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, now in its third year, but is far from fighting hotspots that lie further south.

It has however faced an increase in strikes, as has the neighboring region of Kharkiv.

Ukraine’s Ground Forces Commander Oleksandr Pavliuk has warned of Russia’s potential plans there.

“Our intelligence services say that the Russians do have a plan to take Kharkiv or Sumy, but we don’t know how serious those plans are, nor if they are capable of realizing them with the forces they have at their disposal,” Pavliuk was cited as saying.

Kyiv says Moscow is escalating attacks from the air and on land ahead of nationwide celebrations on May 9, when Russia marks victory in World War II, and while Ukraine awaits the arrival of crucial weapons supplies from the United States.