Russian strike on Kherson energy facility causes blackout despite partial ceasefire, FM says

Some 45,000 residents of Kherson were left without electricity after a morning Russian attack on one of the city’s power facilities, Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on April 1 during a joint press conference with his Lithuanian counterpart Kestusis Budrys.

The attack happened after Russia and Ukraine announced a partial ceasefire on strikes against energy facilities following technical consultations with the U.S. in Riyadh the previous week.

According to the local military administration, the Central and Korabelnyi districts of the city are without electricity. Electric transport is partially out of service due to the outages.

Throughout the full-scale war, Russia has consistently used targeted missile and drone strikes to knock out Ukraine’s power grid, while Kyiv has hit oil and gas facilities inside Russian territory with long-range drones.

Ukraine and the U.S. previously agreed on a full 30-day truce during their talks in Jeddah on March 11. Russia had rejected this proposal unless it included conditions undermining Kyiv’s ability to defend itself, such as a full halt on foreign military aid.

Moscow has claimed that its side of the energy ceasefire has been in effect since March 18, when Russian President Vladimir Putin allegedly declared a halt on such attacks following a call with U.S. President Donald Trump.

In spite of this, Russian forces also reportedly attacked Kherson’s energy infrastructure on March 27, violating the terms of the U.S.-brokered limited ceasefire.

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With much fanfare, the U.S. on March 25 announced it had brokered an agreement between Russia and Ukraine to “eliminate the use of force” in the Black Sea after two days of talks in Saudi Arabia. But while Kyiv said it was ready to abide by it straight away,

The Kyiv IndependentDominic Culverwell