Ukraine hits Russian energy, leaving thousands without power

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov emerged from seclusion to say he was ready to meet US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to discuss the war in Ukraine.

Plus, Ukrainian strikes disrupted power in two Russian cities near the Ukrainian border (see below). 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Sunday that he was ready to meet US Secretary of State Marco Rubio but that Russia would not abandon its core conditions for ending the war in Ukraine.

US President Donald Trump's efforts to broker an end to the Ukraine war have so far failed and he last month abruptly canceled a planned summit with President Vladimir Putin in Budapest.

The Kremlin on Friday dismissed Western media reports that Lavrov had fallen out of favour with Putin when the summit plans collapsed after Lavrov's ministry sent a message indicating Moscow was not prepared to yield on its demands over Ukraine.

"Secretary of State Marco Rubio and I understand the need for regular communication," Lavrov, Putin's foreign minister since 2004, told state news agency RIA Novosti.

"It is important for discussing the Ukrainian issue and promoting the bilateral agenda. That is why we communicate by telephone and are ready to hold face-to-face meetings when necessary," Lavrov said.

Russia said on Sunday that its forces had captured the settlement of Rybne in Ukraine's southern Zaporizhzhia region.

The Defense Ministry said in a statement on Telegram that Russian troops had managed to seize control of the area "despite shelling and constant hostile drone attacks."  

The claim cannot be independently verified.

The United Kingdom has said that it is sending experts and equipment to Belgium to tackle the problem of drone sightings near airports.

The announcement comes as Belgium's main international airport at Brussels and Liege, one of Europe's biggest cargo airports, were forced to close temporarily in the past week because of drone incursions.

Belgium has not said who has been operating the drones.

 "We don't know — and the Belgians don't yet know — the source of those drones, but we will help them by providing our kit and capability, which has already started to deploy to help Belgium," Air Chief Marshal Richard Knighton, the head of Britain's armed forces, told the BBC.

In recent months, drone incidents across Europe have forced airports to suspend flights at a time.

Russia has been blamed in some cases.

Belgium is home to the headquarters of NATO and the European Union.

Ukraine's state power provider Centerenergo has warned that its generating capacity "is down to zero" following massive Russian attack against Ukrainian energy facilities overnight into Saturday.

The strikes "targeted the same thermal power plants that we had restored after the devastating attack of 2024," the company said in a statement.

Ukraine's power transmission system operator Ukrenergo said electricity supply would be cut for between eight and 16 hours across most regions of Ukraine on Sunday, as authorities scramble to carry out repairs and restore power supply.

Ukraine's Energy Minister Svitlana Grynchuk called it "one of the most difficult nights" since the full-scale war began.

"The enemy inflicted a massive strike with ballistic missiles, which are extremely difficult to shoot down. It is hard to recall such a number of direct strikes on energy facilities since the beginning of the invasion," she told local broadcaster United News.

Ukrainian Human Rights Commissioner Dmytro Lubinets has expressed concern about a Ukrainian man who is detained in Italy and accused of masterminding the explosion of the Nord Stream gas pipelines from Russia to Germany in the Baltic Sea.

The 49-year-old's wife reported that her husband has been on a hunger strike since October 31, Lubinets shared on Telegram, adding that his health condition is now critical.

Lubinets said he had formally urged the Italian authorities to uphold the person's fundamental rights.

The suspect is demanding "humane detention conditions and equal treatment with other prisoners regarding family visits and access to information," according to his lawyer Nicola Canestrini.

The Ukrainian man has been in pre-trial detention in Italy since August. He is waiting to be extradited to Germany for a criminal trial.

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that he was ready to meet US Secretary of State Marco Rubio for talks but stressed that Russia wouldn't give up on its core conditions for ending the conflict.

"Secretary of State Marco Rubio and I understand the need for regular communication," Lavrov told state news agency RIA Novosti.

"It is important for discussing the Ukrainian issue and promoting the bilateral agenda. That is why we communicate by telephone and are ready to hold face-to-face meetings when necessary," he added.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced his conditions in June 2024 for ending the war.

They include Kyiv renouncing its plans to join the US-led NATO military alliance and recognizing Russia's annexation of four Ukrainian provinces: Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine, plus Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south.

Ukrainian strikes on energy infrastructure have left thousands of people without power in some Russian border areas, local officials said. 

Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said the "electricity and heating supply network has suffered severe damage" in the regional capital of the same name.

"Several streets are affected by power issues... More than 20,000 residents are without electricity," he said on Telegram. 

In the western Kursk region, Governor Alexander Khinshtein said Ukrainian disrupted power to 10 neighborhoods.

A drone strike also temporarily caused blackouts and cut heating to parts of Voronezh, regional Governor Alexander Gusev said.

Russia's Defense Ministry, for its part, reported having shot down 44 drones over the border Bryansk region.

Energy infrastructure has been a key target for both Moscow and Kyiv since Russia's full-scale invasion began in February 2022.

While Russia has attempted to cripple the Ukrainian electricity grid, Ukraine has targeted Russian refineries and other facilities.

Ukrainian strikes targeting Russian energy infrastructure have caused blackouts in two Russian border regions, local officials said on Sunday.

This comes a day after a massive Russian attack led to power cuts in several Ukrainian regions. 

Moscow has regularly hit Ukrainian energy installations since it launched its full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022.

Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that he was ready to meet his US counterpart Marco Rubio for talks but insisted that peace can't be achieved without "taking Russian interests into account."

Stay tuned as DW brings you the latest news from the war in Ukraine.