Power restored to 800,000 in Kyiv after major Russian strikes in Ukraine

Power was restored to over 800000 residents in Kyiv on Saturday a day after Russia launched major attacks on the Ukrainian power grid that caused blackouts across much of the country and European leaders agreed to proceed toward using hundreds of billions of frozen Russian assets to support Ukraines war effortUkraines largest private energy company DTEK said The main work to restore the power supply had been completed but that some localised outages were still affecting the Ukrainian capital following Fridays massive Russian attacksRussian drone and missile strikes wounded at least 20 people in Kyiv damaged residential buildings and triggered blackouts across swaths of Ukraine early FridayPrime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko described the attack as one of the largest concentrated strikes against Ukraines energy infrastructureRussias Defence Ministry on Friday said the strikes had targeted energy facilities supplying Ukraines military It did not give details of those facilities but said Russian forces used Kinzhal hypersonic missiles and strike drones against themUkraines air force said Saturday that its air defences intercepted or jammed 54 of 78 Russian drones launched against Ukraine overnight while Russias defence ministry said it had shot down 42 Ukrainian drones over Russian territoryAt least two people were killed and five wounded in airstrikes on Kostiantynivka a city in Ukraines Donetsk region Saturday regional Gov Vadim Filashkin saidUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday that he had a very positive and productive phone call with US President Donald TrumpIn a post on X Zelenskyy said he told Trump about Russian attacks on Ukraines energy system and that the two discussed opportunities to strengthen Ukraines air defence There needs to be readiness on the Russian side to engage in real diplomacy this can be achieved through strength Zelenskyy wroteUkraines energy sector has been a key battleground since Russia launched its allout invasion more than three years agoEach year Russia has tried to cripple the Ukrainian power grid before the bitter winter season apparently hoping to erode public morale Winter temperatures run from late October through March with January and February the coldest monthsZelenskyy said in his nightly address Friday that Russia was taking advantage of the world being almost entirely focused on the prospect of establishing peace in the Middle East and called for strengthening Ukraines air defence systems and tighter sanctions on RussiaRussian assets must be fully used to strengthen our defence and ensure recovery he said in the video posted to XMeanwhile British Prime Minister Keir Starmer French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said in a joint statement on Friday that they were ready to move toward using in a coordinated way the value of the immobilised Russian sovereign assets to support Ukraines armed forces and thus bring Russia to the negotiation tableThe statement added they aimed to do this in close cooperation with the United StatesUkraines budget and military needs for 2026 and 2027 are estimated to total around 130 billion euros USD 153 billion The European Union has already poured in 174 billion euros about USD 202 billion since the war started in February 2022The biggest pot of ready funds available is through frozen Russian assets most of which is held in Belgium around 194 billion euros USD 225 billion as of June and outside the EU in Japan with around USD 50 billion and the US the United Kingdom and Canada with lesser amountsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever