Russian attacks on the power system in Ukraine's eastern Dnipropetrovsk region have left 600,000 people without electricity as the Kremlin's campaign against energy targets continued on November 8.
Meanwhile, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said his country would be taking part in Russia-Ukraine peace talks brokered by the United States on November 10-11.
The talks will be the first major diplomatic meeting since February, and it was not previously expected that Ukraine's European allies would be at the table.
'Constant Russian Shelling'
In Ukraine, Dnipropetrovsk military chief Oleksandr Hanzha said hospitals had been forced to switch to diesel generators and electric-powered public transport had ground to a halt in Dnipro.
"Power company workers are already working to restore power. Their efforts are being hampered by constant Russian shelling," he wrote in a statement on social media.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said there were "widespread power outages across the country. In the Zhytomyr region alone, 140 apartment buildings were left without heating following a Russian strike."
Russia began stepping up attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure in late September. It has targeted the sector every winter since launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
In October, RFE/RL obtained from the Ukrainian armed forces a detailed Russian document that sets out a blueprint for this year's campaign -- targeting power generation and supply, water supply, sewage systems, and heating.
Ukrainian armed forces reported on November 8 that Russia had attacked overnight with three Kh-59/69 guided aircraft missiles from the Sea of Azov and 164 strike UAVs, 112 of which were jet-powered.
They said 137 drones had been intercepted. But a drone strike on a private residence in a Dnipro suburb caused a fire, while another strike in the city killed one civilian and injured another, Ukrainian authorities said.
Four people were injured in the Poltava region due to Russian attacks.
Russia's Defense Ministry claimed to have hit an electricity substation "which supplied electricity to Ukrainian defense industry enterprises" and a container ship in the Black Sea "delivering weapons."
Authorities in Russia's Kursk region, which borders Ukraine, said a 40-year-old man was killed when a tractor was hit in a drone strike.
Battlefield claims could not be independently verified.
Diplomatic Moves
The latest attacks came a day after Zelenskyy accused Russia of seeking to apply maximum pressure ahead of the talks in Abu Dhabi in the coming days by plunging "the entire country into a blackout."
US President Donald Trump, whose administration has been trying to settle the conflict since the start of his second term in January 2025, has said he believed a "big, beautiful agreement" could be close and suggested it might involve not only Ukraine but "all of Europe."
The Kremlin has previously raised concerns over its security in relation to European countries as another obstacle to a diplomatic resolution of its invasion of Ukraine.
"The Europeans will be represented and France will be in Abu Dhabi to participate in these talks," Barrot told RTL television on November 8.
"I can’t tell you yet who will be representing France on this occasion, but France will certainly be there," he added.
