Ukraine faces more blackouts and strikes in Russian-controlled Melitopol

The Melitopol attack signals the importance of longer-range weapons in Ukraine's campaign to retake land in the south.

Russian drone strikes on the port city of Odessa in southern Ukraine plunged more than 1.5 million people in the region into darkness over the weekend, while 220 miles to the east the Ukrainians struck the Russian-occupied town of Melitopol, an attack that opened another front in the hard-fought battle for territory. p>

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the country's forces shot down 10 of 15 drones deployed by Russia over Odessa, a tally he is not not possible to verify immediately. But he said Russia's strikes, part of a nationwide assault on Ukraine's energy grid, had left the region in a "very difficult" situation, warning it would take "days", not months. "hours", to restore power to civilians.

Some 300,000 residents of the Odessa region were left without electricity on Sunday afternoon, the head of the regional military administration Maxim Marchenko said on Telegram , the messaging app. By Monday, there should be a "significant improvement in the situation", he said.

Odessa is the latest Ukrainian city to lose weight. electricity after relentless Russian attacks on power plants, heating systems and other energy infrastructure. The attacks, using Iranian-made missiles and drones, have left Ukrainians vulnerable and in the dark as the coldest time of the year begins.

All of the country's thermal power plants and hydroelectric power stations have been damaged by recent waves of Russian strikes, Denys Shmyhal, Ukraine's Prime Minister, said on Sunday.

On Facebook, Mr. Shmyhal wrote that there would be "significant restrictions on electricity consumption" throughout the winter.

In Melitopol, strikes Ukrainian troops reportedly hit a church used as a base by Russian soldiers, underscoring the importance of artillery in softening Russian positions in the next phase of Ukraine's campaign to retake land in its south.

< p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">"Fireworks east of Melitopol", the exiled mayor of the city, Ivan Fedorov, said on Telegram, where he posted a video taken at night of a large fire burning in the distance. Russian forces were transporting their wounded by car to hospitals in Crimea, Fedorov said, but many people had also been killed.

It was not possible to check Mr. Fedorov's video or description independently.

ImageUkrainian soldiers from Kherson region pulled out to repair their vehicles on Friday.Credit...Laura Boushnak for The New York Times

Tass, a Russian news agency owned by the state, quoted the pro-Russian acting governor of the Zaporizhzhia region, Yevgeny Balitsky, as saying that a strike on Melitopol using a HIMARS guided rocket system killed two people and injured 10. others.

For months, Ukrainian partisans working behind Russian lines have carried out attacks against targets around Melitopol, including one in the summer near Mr. Balitsky's office. Mr Fedorov said there had also been other attacks in the city in recent days, as well as a strike in the port city of Berdyansk, further east.

When Ukraine recaptured the southern city of Kherson in mid-November, forcing Moscow to withdraw its troops to the eastern bank of the Dnipro River after months of military pressure, it opened a new phase of the battle for southern Ukraine.

The advance allowed Ukraine to use longer-range artillery, including the system of US-supplied HIMARS weapons, to strike targets deeper inside Russia...