Almost two-thirds of energy consumers in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, which is under occupation, were left without electricity on Tuesday following a second consecutive night of Ukrainian strikes targeting local energy facilities, as reported by officials aligned with the Kremlin.
Denis Pushilin, the Moscow-backed leader of the Donetsk region, described the overnight strikes as “unprecedented,” noting that they specifically hit the Zuivska and Starovesheve power plants.
“Currently, 65% of energy users are experiencing outages,” Pushilin stated in a Telegram message sent around noon local time. “Unfortunately, we may face rolling blackouts.”
The Kremlin-affiliated official also mentioned that the Ukrainian assaults rendered an unspecified number of water filtration plants and central heating boiler houses non-operational, leaving numerous towns without access to water and heat.
According to the pro-Kremlin outlet DNR News, over 376,000 customers and 14 healthcare institutions were affected by the electricity outages.
Pushilin indicated that instructional activities at schools located in the partially occupied area would only occur in buildings that still have heating. DNR News reported that nearly 50 schools lack heating.
The forecast indicates that temperatures in Donetsk will drop to around 8 degrees Celsius (46 degrees Fahrenheit) on Tuesday night. On Wednesday, the expected temperatures range from a high of 12 degrees Celsius (53 degrees Fahrenheit) to a low of 7 degrees Celsius (44 degrees Fahrenheit).
The power outages on Tuesday followed a second night of reported Ukrainian strikes on occupied areas of the eastern Donetsk region. On Monday, air strikes left approximately half a million customers without electricity, according to authorities supported by the Kremlin.
The affected cities—Donetsk, Makiivka, Horlivka, Yasynuvata, and their surrounding regions—had a combined pre-war population of over 1 million.
As of now, Ukraine has not issued any comments regarding the strikes reported on Monday or Tuesday.
