'Energy workers have done the nearly impossible' —Power reconnected in Kryvyi Rih after Russian drone strikes left 45,000 subscribers without electricity
Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect that power was reconnected to residents in the city by 7:30 a.m. local time on Jan. 14.
Russian forces carried out a "massive" attack on infrastructure facilities in Kryvyi Rih overnight on Jan. 14, leaving over 45,000 electricity subscribers without power, local officials said.
The attack on Kryvyi Rih comes as Russian forces continue to carry out attacks on infrastructure facilites — aimed at testing Ukrainians' resolve by disrupting heat and power supplies across Ukraine.
Russian Shahed drones carried out the attack leaving over 700 buildings without heat across the city, Oleksandr Vilkul, the head of the Kryvyi Rih Defense Council, said.
Vilkul added that the city's water utility pumps had switched operations to emergency generators, noting that the city will experience lower than normal water pressure.
By 7:30 a.m. local time, Vilkul said that emergency crew had reconnected all customers affected by the outages.
"The energy workers have done the nearly impossible," Vilkul wrote. "Boiler plants have been fired up and are already reaching operating temperatures. Municipal electric transport is running normally, including the high-speed tram. Water supply is functioning."
Vilkul noted that no casualties were in inflicted as a result of the attack.
Last week, Russian forces struck on energy facilities across the country, leaving multiple regions, including Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts nearly completely without power.
Residents of the capital, Kyiv, have contended with similar challenges in recent days, with thousands of residents left without heat following a massive overnight assault on Jan. 9 that targeted critical infrastructure and killed at least four people.
Amid a surging cold front, overnight temperatures in Kyiv on Jan. 14 dropped to -14 Celsius (6 degrees Fahrenheit) as weather forecasts indicate freezing conditions will likely continue for at least two more weeks.
At its peak, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko reported that 6,000 buildings were left in the cold across the city, affecting about half the residential apartment buildings in the capital.
