UPDATE 4-Russian strikes plunge Ukraine's industrial southeast into blackouts

Ukrainian officials raced to restore power on Thursday after Russian drone attacks plunged two southeastern regions into near-total blackout overnight, strikes that President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said ⁠were aimed at "breaking" his country. Zelenskiy said Russia was intent on using wintry weather as a weapon rather than allowing U.S.-led diplomacy to work towards a resolution of nearly four years of conflict.

Ukrainian officials raced to restore power on Thursday after Russian drone attacks plunged two southeastern regions into near-total blackout overnight, strikes that President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said ⁠were aimed at "breaking" his country.

Zelenskiy said Russia was intent on using wintry weather as a weapon rather than allowing U.S.-led diplomacy to work towards a resolution of nearly four years of conflict. In a rare instance of simultaneous warnings, the Ukrainian president and the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv a mass Russian strike was possible.

Moscow has intensified its attacks on Ukraine's energy system ​as Ukrainian forces fend off Russian advances on the battlefield and Kyiv faces U.S. pressure to quickly secure a peace deal. ZELENSKIY CONDEMNS RUSSIA'S WAR ON 'LIFE IN UKRAINE'

Nearly ‍500,000 households in the industrialised region of Dnipropetrovsk, one of Ukraine's largest, were still without power on Thursday afternoon, according to private energy provider DTEK. Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba had earlier said more than 1.7 million households in Ukraine faced water supply problems.

Mayor Borys Filatov of Dnipro, the region's main town, said water supply was back to normal in the city and power and heating would soon be fully restored. In Zaporizhzhia region, ⁠the Energy ‌Ministry said power had been restored after a ⁠blackout forced infrastructure to rely on reserves.

"This is Russia's war specifically against our people, against life in Ukraine - an attempt to break Ukraine," Zelenskiy wrote on X after a European tour aimed at rallying support for Kyiv. Zelenskiy, ‍speaking separately in his nightly video address, said, "There is information there could be a new, massive Russian strike this evening" and warned residents to heed alerts.

The U.S. Embassy said it had also ​received information "concerning a potentially significant air attack that may occur at any time over the next several days". In Dnipro, generators hummed outside storefronts downtown, where residents ⁠told Reuters they were used to disruptions.

"This is not the first blackout, and I suspect that it will not be the last, so we are working - we are prepared," said a barista who introduced herself as Iryna. In ⁠his address, Zelenskiy said Russia was "placing greater emphasis on winter than on diplomacy, on ballistics against our energy sector rather than on working with America and reaching agreements with President Trump.

"This needs to change, and it needs to change through pressure on Russia and support for Ukraine." RESIDENTS AND INDUSTRY AFFECTED

Zelenskiy said there had been new Russian ⁠missile strikes on dwellings in his hometown in Dnipropetrovsk region, Kryvyi Rih, and the head of the city's military administration said 17 people, including three children, had been injured. ⁠Twenty-nine apartment buildings were damaged. The municipal water company ‌in Kryvih Rih said the attacks were affecting deliveries from pumping stations.

Key steel maker ArcelorMittal said it had temporarily suspended some production and Zaporizhstal, another major producer, also reported a suspension. Odesa Regional Governor Oleh Kiper said Russian drones had hit port facilities around ⁠the city and damaged an empty oil storage tank. (Additional reporting by Mykhailo Moskalenko in Dnipro Editing by Philippa Fletcher, Gareth ‍Jones, Ron Popeski, Frances Kerry and Cynthia Osterman)

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