A large Russian attack on Ukraine\u2019s energy infrastructure led to power cuts in most regions, the Ukrainian energy minister said early on Saturday morning. \u201cThe enemy is massively attacking Ukraine\u2019s energy infrastructure again. Because of this, emergency power outages have been introduced in a number of regions of Ukraine,\u201d Svitlana Grynchuk posted. \u201cEmergency power outages will be cancelled after the situation in the energy system stabilises.\u201d<\/p>\n
Drones hit energy infrastructure in the Odesa region of Ukraine\u2019s south late on Friday evening, said the regional governor, Oleg Kiper. \u201cThere was damage to an energy infrastructure facility,\u201d he said, reporting no dead or wounded.<\/p>\n
Ukraine\u2019s Naftogaz said it would import at least 300m cubic metres of US liquid natural gas<\/a> through an agreement with Poland\u2019s Orlen, a gas trader and pipeline operator, to help stabilise the heating season ahead. \u201cDespite the enemy\u2019s plans, Ukraine will have light and heat this winter,\u201d said Grynchuk, the energy minister.<\/p>\n Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Friday that Russia was massing troops near the city of Vovchansk in Ukraine\u2019s north-eastern Kharkiv region. Speaking to reporters in Kyiv, Ukraine\u2019s president said Moscow\u2019s assault on the eastern city of Pokrovsk was aimed at demonstrating battlefield success to Donald Trump, the US president. The Institute for the Study of War said Russian troops had advanced marginally near the mostly destroyed, partly Russian-held city<\/a> in pursuit of bringing Kharkiv city within range of tube artillery. Ukrainian army units reported that Russian troops filmed themselves raising a flag in Vovchansk, only to be quickly killed by Ukrainian drones.<\/p>\n The Kremlin was forced to deny strong rumours that the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, has fallen out of favour with Vladimir Putin. Lavrov, 75, was absent from a big Kremlin meeting this week that he would typically attend, and Putin chose someone else to attend a G20 summit in South Africa later this month, a role that Lavrov has filled in the past. For two weeks in a row the foreign ministry has also not disclosed Lavrov\u2019s travel plans and speaking engagements for the following week. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said there was \u201cnothing true\u201d in reports that Lavrov was in trouble.<\/p>\n