Russian drone attack in Ukraine leaves 40,000 without power

KIEV

Ukraine said Friday that tens of thousands of people were without power after a barrage of two dozen Russian drones damaged energy infrastructure in the centre of the country.

The overnight attack echoed the systematic bombardments by Russian forces last winter that left millions in Ukraine without power, heating or water for extended stretches.

The air force said Moscow had launched 24 Iranian-designed drones at Ukraine, where a national energy provider said its facilities in the Dnipropetrovsk region were damaged, adding that defence systems had downed 11.

"This led to a power outage for more than 40,000 subscribers," the head of the region, Sergiy Lysak, said on social media, adding that two mines were without power.

The energy provider Ukrenergo said one of its substations in the city of Kryvyi Rig -- President Volodymyr Zelensky's home town -- was damaged during the attack.

Around 100 miners trapped underground had been brought out unharmed, regional officials said.

Lysak also said a 37-year-old man was injured by Russian shelling on the village of Pokrovske.

In the northeastern Kharkiv region meanwhile, authorities said around 64 towns and settlements had been left without electricity by Russians shelling.