Ukraine has hit back at Russia’s attempts to disable its energy infrastructure with air strikes that succeeded in disrupting power and heating in two cities across the border.

Kyiv’s drone and missile attacks cut power and heating on Sunday in the Russian cities of Belgorod near the border and Voronezh nearly 300km (186 miles) away.

In Belgorod, local Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said missile strikes caused “serious damage” to power and heating systems supplying the city, affecting some 20,000 households.

Alexander Gusev, regional governor of Voronezh, said several drones were electronically jammed over the city – home to more than one million people – and sparked a fire at a local utility facility that was quickly extinguished.

A Russian Defence Ministry statement made no mention of either the Voronezh or Belgorod areas, reporting 44 Ukrainian drones were destroyed or intercepted by Russian forces during the night.

Local authorities in the Rostov region also reported an hours-long blackout in the city of Taganrog, home to some 240,000 people, blaming it on an emergency shutdown of a power line. Local media reported a nearby transformer substation caught fire.

Meanwhile, Russia launched a barrage of drones and missiles in overnight attacks on Ukraine, targeting substations that supply two nuclear power plants and killing seven people, Ukrainian officials told Reuters news agency.

Russia’s Defence Ministry confirmed on Saturday that it launched “a massive strike with high-precision long-range air, ground and sea-based weapons” on weapons production plants and gas and energy facilities in response to Kyiv’s earlier strikes on Russia.

On Sunday, the northeastern region of Kharkiv was still struggling to recover from Russia’s attacks, which left about 100,000 people without power.

State-owned energy company Tsentrenergo said the attacks were the largest on its facilities since the start of the war in February 2022, and it halted operations at plants in the Kyiv and Kharkiv regions.

Moscow launched 69 drones at energy facilities across Ukraine overnight into Sunday, of which 34 were shot down, according to the Ukrainian air force.

Russia and Ukraine have traded almost daily assaults on each other’s energy infrastructure as United States-led diplomatic efforts to stop the nearly four-year war appear to be leading nowhere fast.

Ukrainian long-range drone strikes on Russian refineries have aimed to deprive Moscow of the oil export revenue it needs to pursue the war.

Meanwhile, Kyiv and its Western allies say Russia is trying to cripple the Ukrainian power grid and deny civilians access to heat, lights, and running water for a fourth consecutive winter in what amounts to a weaponisation of the extreme cold.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Russian state news agency RIA Novosti on Sunday that he’s ready to meet US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to discuss the war on Ukraine and mend bilateral ties.

Lavrov repeated that peace can’t be achieved without “taking Russian interests into account” – a phrase Moscow has used to signal it is standing firm in its maximalist demands for Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has demanded Kyiv withdraw troops from the entirety of the four regions Moscow claims as part of Russia: Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine – which make up the Donbas – plus Kherson and Zaporizhia in the south.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said some Russian-occupied territories might be acknowledged as temporarily seized, but has ruled out any official recognition, saying he does not have a mandate to give away territory.

Lavrov’s move comes weeks after efforts to organise a summit between Putin and US President Donald Trump were abruptly cancelled.

[Aljazeera]