Ukraine and Russia exchange strikes targeting energy facilities as the gap between Zelensky and Trump widens

Overnight, Ukraine and Russia exchanged strikes targeting each other's energy infrastructure, leading to hundreds of thousands of people being cut off from electricity, at a time when such attacks put Kiev's relations with Washington under pressure. The Volyn region, located in northwestern Ukraine, was subjected to about 20 attacks, in an incident that a regional military official described as “a very difficult night.”

The acting head of the Volyn Regional Military Administration, Roman Romanyuk, said: “Our region has been subjected to continuous missile attacks,” noting that 370,000 subscribers were without electricity by Friday morning. Romanyuk added that at least two people were injured in the towns of Manevichy and Lutsk.

For its part, the Ukrainian energy company DTEK said that Russian forces attacked its facility in the southern coastal city of Odessa during the night. The capital, Kiev, was also attacked, while regional authorities reported strikes in Kharkiv, Sumy, Cherkasy, Ternopil, and Rivne.

In a separate context, the governor of Vladimir Province, Alexander Avdeev, which is located about 180 kilometers east of Moscow, said that Russian forces responded to a Ukrainian drone attack that targeted heating infrastructure on the outskirts of the city. State media, citing the governor, reported the closure of two electricity substations, cutting off heating and water supplies.

State media also reported that Yandex's data center in Vladimir was attacked and caught fire, halting the operations of the Google-like technology company. The company did not issue any statement following news of the attack.

These attacks are the latest in a series of attacks amid the escalation of the dispute between US President Donald Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky. Zelensky said on Thursday that Ukraine would resume its attacks on Russian oil refineries after the White House concluded a widely criticized deal to import Russian diesel.

Relations between Trump and Zelensky have also deteriorated due to an ongoing dispute over who ordered the disruption of a vital Ukrainian military system operating on the Starlink Internet service owned by Elon Musk.