Russia launches major attack on Ukraine’s energy grid, causing power cuts

Russia unleashed a widely anticipated air campaign against Ukraine's energy grid on Wednesday, hitting power facilities and infrastructure around Kyiv and other regions in the heaviest combined attack on energy sites in months. The strikes, in which Ukrainian officials said seven people were killed, followed days of intensifying drone barrages primarily on the capital, a prelude to what many Ukrainians expect to be a winter of attacks intended to plunge cities into cold and darkness when Ukraine is short of air defences. Ukraine's state power grid operator Ukrenergo said it had imposed emergency power cuts as a result of the attack in Kyiv and three surrounding regions – the first time such a measure had been imposed in the capital since the spring. Russian attacks last winter, which brought record-low temperatures, ravaged power and heating systems, forcing Ukrainians to adapt to dire circumstances. Read moreUkraine’s grid operator orders emergency power cuts in Kyiv after Russian strikes Capital shrouded in smoke Some of the capital's trams and trolley buses ground to a halt due to the outages as people headed home from work. Kyiv's water utility said pressure in the water system...