Russia Hits Odesa as Attacks on Ukrainian Energy System Widen

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(Bloomberg) — Russian forces hit the southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa as part of a wave of strikes on energy infrastructure that President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called a threat to diplomatic efforts to end the war. 

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The overnight attack — some 165 drones targeting cities from Lviv in the west to Kharkiv in the east — focused on Odesa, where more than 50 unmanned aerial vehicles hit energy targets and injured dozens, Zelenskiy said Tuesday on social-media platform X. 

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The Kremlin has exploited winter conditions, with temperatures across Ukraine plunging well below freezing and families struggling to maintain heat and water supplies, to cripple the war-battered nation’s energy system. Russian and Ukrainian negotiators have meanwhile held a series of US-brokered meetings as they struggled to move forward a peace initiative sought by President Donald Trump. 

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“Every such Russian strike erodes the diplomacy that is still ongoing and undermines the efforts of partners who are helping to end this war,” Zelenskiy said. He called on US and European allies to pile pressure on Moscow: “Without pressure on the aggressor, wars do not stop.” 

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The three-way talks are set to continue in the coming days. Negotiations that began last week in the United Arab Emirates have so far failed to yield tangible results amid disagreements between Kyiv and Moscow over control of territory, particularly the eastern area of Donbas, once Ukraine’s industrial heartland, which includes the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk. 

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Russia has stood by its demand that Ukrainian forces withdraw from areas of Donetsk that it hasn’t seized in its four-year invasion, which Zelenskiy has rejected. Still, the Ukrainian leader has cited progress, above all on establishing security guarantees from the US. 

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Trump officials called a two-day round of negotiations in Abu Dhabi constructive, particularly since the warring parties met face-to-face rather through intermediaries. 

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The city of Odesa and the surrounding region are home to sprawling Black Sea port infrastructure critically important to Ukraine’s grain exports. They’ve been a regular target of Russian attacks since the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022. 

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While no damage to port facilities was reported, the strike affected the region’s power infrastructure, national grid operator Ukrenergo said on Telegram. Explosive-laden drones triggered local blackouts in areas including the Odesa region, Ukrenergo said, adding to more than 500 weather-related outages across the country. 

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