The largest in three years: Russia’s Belgorod plunged into darkness after Ukrainian attack

Thousands of Russians in the Belgorod region spent the night in darkness after a Ukrainian strike damaged power infrastructure and caused widespread outages.

Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of Belgorod region, said on Telegram on Monday that engineers and emergency crews had restored electricity to nearly 34,000 consumers by morning, but about 5,400 people across 24 residential areas were still without power.

Like other regions bordering Ukraine, Belgorod has been repeatedly targeted by cross-border shelling and drone attacks. Since Moscow’s war on Kyiv expanded in 2022 to include Russian territory, civilian life has been increasingly disrupted and vital infrastructure heavily damaged.

Ukraine has not yet commented on the attack. Both sides claim their respective strikes are aimed at destroying infrastructure connected to the war effort.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Monday that its air defenses had shot down 251 Ukrainian drones overnight — one of the largest such attacks since Moscow launched its military operation more than three years ago.

“During the past night, air defense systems intercepted and destroyed 251 Ukrainian drones,” the ministry wrote on Telegram.

It added that Russian forces had downed 40 drones over the Crimean Peninsula, annexed by Russia in 2014, and another 62 over the Black Sea.

Dozens more were destroyed over the Kursk and Belgorod regions and other nearby areas, according to the ministry.

Russia has continued to target Ukraine, particularly its power networks, with waves of drone and missile strikes as part of its ongoing full-scale offensive launched in February 2022.

Ukraine, in turn, has retaliated by striking Russian oil refineries and other energy facilities.