Ukrainian strikes on Russian energy infrastructure left more than 20,000 people without power in border regions on Sunday, local authorities said.
Belgorod region Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said the “electricity and heating supply network has suffered severe damage” in the regional capital.
“Several streets are affected by power issues… More than 20,000 residents are without electricity,” he wrote on Telegram.
In the neighboring Kursk region, “a fire broke out at one of the power plants in the village of Korenevo,” cutting power to 10 municipalities, Governor Alexander Khinshtein said on Telegram.
A fire also broke out at a heating facility in the southern Voronezh region, according to Governor Alexander Gusev.
Russia’s Defense Ministry, meanwhile, reported destroying 44 Ukrainian drones over the border region of Bryansk.
On Saturday, Russian attacks on energy infrastructure left Ukraine scrambling to turn light and heating back on, with the state’s power provider saying its generating capacity was reduced to “zero” on Sunday.
The attack caused significant damage to Ukrainian power plants and resulted in at least four deaths.
Russia, which has escalated attacks on Ukraine’s infrastructure in recent months, launched 69 drones at energy facilities across the country overnight into Sunday, of which 34 were shot down, according to the Ukrainian air force.