'It's a national emergency' — Russia bombs two entire Ukrainian oblasts into darkness in freezing winter temperatures
Communal workers clear debris from the courtyard of a damaged residential building in Dnipro, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, on Jan. 7, 2026, after a drone strike destroyed nearby cars amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine. (Mykola Synelnykov / AFP via Getty Images)
Editor's note: An earlier version of this story stated that media outlets reported an explosion near a thermal power plant. The reports actually came from local residents, and authorities had not commented on it by the time of publication.
Russian overnight attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure have created a "national emergency," Dnipro Mayor Borys Filatov said on Jan. 8 during a press briefing.
"From a technical standpoint, the situation in Dnipro is one of the most difficult. This is truly a national emergency," Filatov said.
Russian forces struck Ukrainian energy infrastructure, leaving Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia oblasts nearly without power in the evening of Jan. 7.
The attacks come as Ukraine braces for freezing temperatures, with daytime highs expected to fall below -10 degrees Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit) next week.
Oleksandr Suprun, a 26-year-old musician in Dnipro, said the recent blackout reminded him of the first widespread power cuts at the end of 2022, when nearly the entire city lost electricity, water supplies were cut off, and mobile communications failed.
Suprun added that the scale of the current outage could be even greater, with neighborhoods that had not previously experienced power cuts left without electricity.
"The main difference I see now compared to 2022 is the city's preparedness for power outages," Suprun told the Kyiv Independent.
"Back then, in 2022, no one had power banks, few businesses had generators, and almost no one had flashlights or battery-powered lamps. Now, that helps us get through blackouts with less anxiety," he added.
Residents reported hearing an explosion around 10 p.m. local time on Jan. 7 in the city of Dnipro, the administrative center of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. A glow was visible near a local thermal power plant, although authorities have not mentioned that the facility was affected.
Both regions are operating under extended power outage schedules, and some settlements remain completely without electricity.
"This was the first total blackout across the entire region in recent years, but all services were on site from the very first minute," Zaporizhzhia Oblast Governor Ivan Fedorov said.
Zaporizhzhia Oblast was left without power around 10 p.m. local time on Jan. 7. Electricity and heating gradually began returning after 3 a.m. on Jan. 8, according to Fedorov.
More than 1 million people in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast remained without water and heating as of the morning of Jan. 8, Communities and Territories Development Minister Oleksii Kuleba said.
At the Jan. 8 briefing, Dnipro Mayor Borys Filatov said power was gradually being restored to hospitals and that the city's sewage system, which served about 970,000 people before Russia's invasion in 2022, was back in operation.
The water supply in the western part of the city was also stabilizing. At the same time, all of the city's boiler rooms lost power a day earlier, and restoration efforts were continuing, according to Filatov.
"It is easier for me to adapt to these conditions, but it is just awful for older people or people with disabilities, and even for families with small children," Mariia Yarchuk, a 38-year-old cultural manager based in Dnipro, told the Kyiv Independent.
Yarchuk said she did not hear an explosion before the power went out in the city, but many drones were shot down in the region before the blackout, particularly in the suburbs of Dnipro.
"Although we are used to temporary power cuts, this time the situation is far worse, and there is currently no prediction for when it might be restored," Yarchuk said.
"I plan to go out of town to my parents' house because they have a generator," she added.
The outages disrupted critical services across the region. All city hospitals in Dnipro were switched to generator power on the evening of Jan. 7, Mayor Borys Filatov said.
Electric transportation, including the metro, was also affected, prompting an increase in bus usage. Residents additionally reported disruptions to mobile phone service and internet access.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said power had been restored in Zaporizhzhia Oblast as of noon on Jan. 8, with scheduled power outages in place.
By late afternoon, all critical infrastructure had been restored in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast except for the city of Pavlohrad, Yasno CEO Serhiy Kovalenko said.
"There is no military sense in such strikes on energy and infrastructure, which leave people without electricity and heating in winter conditions," Zelensky said.
"This is Russia's war against our people, against life in Ukraine — an attempt to break Ukraine. That is why support for our resilience and all forms of assistance to our state must work to the maximum," Zelensky added.
School holidays in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast were extended by two days, through Jan. 9, due to power supply problems, regional Governor Vladyslav Haivanenko said. In Dnipro, school holidays were extended through Jan. 11, the City Council's Humanitarian Policy Department said.
Energy workers restored power to some critical infrastructure facilities in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast around 9:30 a.m. on Jan. 8, DTEK, Ukraine's largest private energy company, said. Restoration work continued uninterrupted overnight across the region, according to the company.
Power outages in the two regions also disrupted Ukrainian Railways, also known as Ukrzaliznytsia, train schedules. As of the morning of Jan. 8, transport was running normally in Zaporizhzhia, while trains in Dnipro were operating using internal combustion locomotives, the company said.
Zaporizhstal, one of Ukraine's largest steelmakers, also lost its external power supply and suspended production following the attacks. The company said it is currently working to stabilize its internal power grid.
Russian forces have regularly attacked Ukrainian cities in recent months amid U.S. efforts to negotiate an end of Russia's war in Ukraine.
Despite multiple rounds of negotiations, the fate of ongoing peace talks remains uncertain amid Moscow's refusal to budge from its maximalist demands in Ukraine.
