The Moscow-installed authorities in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) reported a second day of widespread power outages on Monday after overnight Ukrainian strikes damaged two major thermal power plants.
Denis Pushilin, the Kremlin-appointed head of the region, said the Zuivka and Starobesheve thermal power plants were hit early on Nov. 18, cutting electricity to multiple towns and forcing boiler houses and water-filtration stations to shut down.
He said emergency crews were working “in urgent mode” to restore services.
The Zuivka plant is located in the town of Zugres, about 40 kilometers east of Donetsk. Local residents told Russian media they heard several explosions overnight before a fire broke out at the facility.
Power was later cut to the area. Electricity also went out in nearby Ilovaisk, a town of about 15,000 people before Russia’s full-scale invasion. Local officials told TASS that air defenses had shot down a missile aimed at the plant.
The Starobesheve plant, located in Novyi Svit roughly 20 kilometers from Donetsk, was also damaged. Both facilities had been hit previously in early 2023.
The latest strikes came just a day after a major drone attack on Nov. 17 left about 500,000 people without power in Donetsk, Makiivka, Horlivka and Yasynuvata.
Heating systems also stopped working. Power was partially restored by evening, but Pushilin warned residents to expect rolling blackouts in the coming days.
The reported attacks follow weeks of intensified Russian strikes on Ukraine’s own energy grid. In early November, all state-owned thermal power plants in Ukraine were forced offline after a wave of Russian missiles, according to the state operator Centrenergo.
“We lost everything we were restoring around the clock. Completely,” the company said, adding that crews were now focused on repairs and introducing new generating capacity.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has previously warned that Ukraine could respond with large-scale outages in Russia’s border regions if Moscow continues to target Ukraine’s energy system.
“They must understand: if they want to cause blackouts for us, we will do the same to them,” Zelensky said.