KYIV/BERLIN: Ukraine’s southern port city of Odesa and the surrounding region suffered major blackouts on Saturday after a large overnight Russian attack on the power grid that left more than a million households without power.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia had attacked Ukraine with more than 450 drones and 30 missiles. A Russian spokesperson said Moscow used hypersonic missiles in the bombing of Odesa.

“The brunt of the attack was on our energy system, on the south and Odesa region,” Zelenskiy wrote on Telegram, adding that thousands of families in seven regions across Ukraine were left without power.

Prime Minister Yulia Svyry­denko said it was one of the war’s largest attacks on Odesa, where supplies of electricity and water had been knocked out. She said supplies of non-drinking water were being brought in to areas of the city.

Moscow says it used hypersonic missiles in bombing over southern Ukraine

Ukraine’s interior minister Ihor Klymenko said more than a million households across Ukraine had been left without power and five people had been wounded as a result of the attack.

Ukraine’s power grid operator said a “significant number” of households were without power in the southern regions of Odesa and Mykolaiv, and that the Ukrainian-controlled part of the frontline Kherson region was totally without power. Moscow has regularly bombarded Ukraine’s energy system since its 2022 invasion, causing hours of daily blackouts countrywide.

Russia’s defence ministry said on Saturday it had conducted strikes on Ukrainian energy and military-industrial facilities.

Germany will host US and Ukrainian delegations over the weekend for talks on a ceasefire in Ukraine, before a summit with European leaders and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Berlin on Monday, a German official said.

A US official said President Donald Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, were travelling to Germany for talks with Ukrainians and Europeans.

The choice to send Witkoff, who has led negotiations with Ukraine and Russia regarding a US peace proposal, appeared to be a signal that Washington saw a chance of progress after nearly four years of war since Russia’s 2022 invasion.

The White House had said on Thursday that Trump would send an official to talks only if he felt there was enough progress to be made.

European allies

“Talks on a possible ceasefire in Ukraine are taking place in Berlin this weekend between foreign policy advisers from, among others, the US and Ukraine,” a German government source said on Saturday when asked about the meetings.

On Monday, Merz is hosting Zelenskiy and European leaders for a summit in Berlin, the latest in a series of public shows of support for the Ukrainian leader from allies across Europe as Kyiv faces pressure from Washington to sign up to a peace plan that initially backed Moscow’s main demands.

Britain, France, and Germany have been working in the last few weeks to refine the US proposals, which, in a draft disclosed last month, called for Kyiv to cede more territory, abandon its ambition to join NATO, and accept limits on its armed forces.

Merz said in a speech on Saturday that Europe had to brace for a fundamental shift in its relations with the US.

Published in Dawn, December 14th, 2025