Russia Hits Ukraine’s Power Grid as Zelenskyy Cites U.S. June Deadline

Russia launched a mass overnight strike on Ukraine’s energy system, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, firing more than 400 drones and about 40 missiles at energy targets, according to Al Jazeera and CBS News. The Kyiv Independent reported emergency power outages as freezing temperatures returned.

Output at Ukraine’s nuclear plants was cut as a result, the Kyiv Independent and CBS News reported. CBS, citing the grid operator Ukrenergo, said the attack was the second mass strike on energy infrastructure this year and extended hourly power outages.

The diplomacy runs in parallel. Zelenskyy said Washington is proposing that the parties end the war by the beginning of this summer. “The Americans are proposing the parties end the war by the beginning of this summer,” he said, according to Al Jazeera and CBS News. Al Jazeera and CBS both described the target as a June deadline for a deal. The United States has also proposed another round of three-way talks with Ukraine and Russia in Miami, following the earlier U.S.-brokered talks in Abu Dhabi, and Zelenskyy confirmed that Ukraine will attend, both outlets reported. The war is nearly four years old.

Little progress has come from the previous round, in Abu Dhabi. Al Jazeera and CBS reported that the talks produced no breakthrough and that Russia wants Ukraine to withdraw from the Donbas region, which Kyiv refuses to do, leaving the two sides apart on territory as the talks in Miami approach.

The overnight attack also raises questions about an energy pause that was announced only days earlier. On Jan. 29, President Trump said Vladimir Putin had agreed to halt strikes on energy infrastructure for a week, according to Al Jazeera and CBS News. On Feb. 3, Russia launched a large attack on Ukraine with about 450 drones and more than 60 missiles, according to CBS, which cited Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha; Al Jazeera put the number of missiles at 71 and said it hit Kyiv and Kharkiv.