Russian barrage causes blackouts in Ukraine as Zelenskyy seeks Trump's help

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia battered Ukraine’s energy facilities with hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles in its latest heavy bombardment of the country’s power grid, authorities said Thursday, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy prepared to ask President Donald Trump at a White House meeting for more American-made air defenses and long-range missiles.

Eight Ukrainian regions experienced blackouts after the barrage, Ukraine’s national energy operator, Ukrenergo, said. DTEK, the country’s largest private energy company, reported outages in the capital, Kyiv, and said it had to stop its natural gas extraction in the central Poltava region due to the strikes.

Zelenskyy said Russia fired more than 300 drones and 37 missiles at Ukraine overnight. He accused Russia of using cluster munitions and conducting repeated strikes on the same target to hit emergency crews and engineers working to repair the grid.

“This fall, the Russians are using every single day to strike our energy infrastructure,” Zelenskyy said on Telegram.

The Ukrainian power grid been one of Russia’s main targets since its invasion of its neighbor more than three years ago. Attacks increase as the bitterly cold months approach in a Russian strategy that Ukrainian officials call “weaponizing winter.” Russia says it aims only at targets of military value.

Ukrainian forces have resisted Russia’s bigger and better equipped army, limiting it to a grinding war of attrition along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line snaking through eastern and southern regions.

But Ukraine, which is almost the size of Texas, is hard to defend from the air in its entirety, and Kyiv officials are seeking more Western help to fend against aerial attacks and strike back at Russia.

Zelenskyy was expected to arrive in the United States on Thursday, ahead of his Oval Office meeting with Trump on Friday.

Ukraine is seeking cruise missiles, air defense systems and joint drone production agreements from the United States, Kyiv officials say. Zelenskyy also wants tougher international economic sanctions on Moscow.

The visit comes amid signs that Trump is leaning toward steping up pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin to break the deadlock in U.S.-led peace efforts.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Wednesday in Brussels that if Russia won’t budge from its objections and refuses to negotiate a peace deal, Washington “will take the steps necessary to impose costs on Russia for its continued aggression.”

Also, Trump said Wednesday that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi personally assured him that his country would stop buying Russian oil. That would deny Moscow income it needs to keep fighting in Ukraine.

Washington has hesitated over providing Ukraine with long-range missiles, such as Tomahawks, out of concern that such a step could escalate the war and deepen tensions between the United States and Russia.

But Trump has been frustrated by his inability to force an end to the war in Ukraine and has expressed impatience with Putin, whom he increasingly describes as the primary obstacle to a resolution.

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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine