Ukraine keeps up pressure on Russian energy facilities with strike on Belgorod thermal power plant

Ukraine’s military continued its targeted airstrikes on Russian energy infrastructure overnight on Sunday, with a missile strike reported on a thermal power plant in Russia’s southwestern Belgorod region, as well as a large number of drones intercepted en route to the Russian capital.

The attacks came hours after Ukrainian officials met with their European counterparts and a US delegation led by US President Donald Trump’s Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner in Berlin on Sunday, which the US side later said had led to “a lot of progress” being made.

As a result of the Ukrainian attacks, parts of the southwestern city of Belgorod were left without heat and electricity after a Ukrainian missile struck the Luch Thermal Power Plant, according to local news channel Pepel.

Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov later confirmed the strike, reporting that “significant damage” had been caused to civilian infrastructure in the city, but added that there had been no reported casualties.

The southern Russian Rostov region was reportedly targeted by a “massive drone strike” overnight on Sunday, according to Governor Yury Slyusar, who announced damage to civilian infrastructure in several districts of the region after “debris from intercepted drones fell on private properties”.

Meanwhile Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin announced that 18 drones had been shot down overnight, though he did not report any damage. Flights in and out of Moscow’s Domodedovo and Zhukovsky airports were suspended twice overnight, according to BBC News Russian, but have since resumed.