Parts of Belgorod and its suburbs lost power on Saturday evening, January 7, following shelling from Ukraine. The attack and damage to local infrastructure were confirmed by regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov on his Telegram channel.
According to the official, the city came under fire three times over 24 hours. During the second barrage-around 8 p.m. local time-energy infrastructure was damaged. Gladkov did not provide details, but said the third strike occurred while he was inspecting sites after the previous attack.
The governor did not say when electricity would be restored to affected homes. He added that “the volume of work to restore heat in the city is increasing” and urged those “whose homes are very cold” to go to temporary warming centers opened in response to the attacks.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said in its evening update that five drones were shot down over Belgorod region. Five more were intercepted over neighboring Bryansk region, the ministry said.
Videos showing the moment the lights went out in Belgorod spread on social media.
Earlier the same day, Belgorod and the region came under rocket fire. Gladkov said four men were injured at an unspecified “infrastructure facility.” The barrage also caused power outages “across the city and districts of the region,” he said.
Gladkov noted air temperatures in the region were not extremely low — minus 1 to minus 3 Celsius - but said the incidents pose a threat to residents’ daily lives. City hospitals continued to operate as normal.
Local residents said the Luch combined heat-and-power plant — one of the city’s key energy facilities — was among the sites hit. It was also targeted in the evening attack.
Russia’s border regions face attacks amid subzero temperatures
Belgorod region has been regularly targeted since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russian troops were massed in the area even before the invasion, and the region is a key logistics hub for the Russian military.
Russia acknowledged in 2022 that it carried out targeted strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. Ukrainian forces, in turn, have also struck energy facilities inside Russia. Belgorod has experienced several blackouts as a result. The last large-scale outages in the city were recorded in early February, and before that in January, when Russia also launched mass strikes on Ukraine’s energy system.
Against this backdrop, the Belgorod governor urged residents to secure their own power supplies by purchasing generators. “Protecting one’s home is largely in the hands of homeowners,” Gladkov said.
