Russian strikes cause Ukraine blackouts, Zelenskyy seeks Trump’s help

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.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (File Photo/ Agencies)

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, Natural gas infrastructure was damaged for the sixth time this month, Naftogaz, Ukraine's state-owned oil and gas company, said. 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.