President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a plan on security guarantees for Ukraine is "essentially ready" after an overnight barrage of Russian strikes crippled electricity, heating, and water infrastructure in parts of the country, leaving around 1 million people in the dark amid freezing temperatures.
In a series of posts on social media on January 8, Zelenskyy said there was "no military rationale" for the attacks, which come amid an intensification of talks for a peace proposal aimed at ending Europe's longest and deadliest conflict since World War II.
He added that a document on providing post-war security guarantees between Kyiv and Washington awaits being finalized with US President Donald Trump but that diplomatic moves to help end the war should not mean supplies of air defense systems and military equipment needed to mitigate Russian attacks should stop flowing into the country in the meantime.
"Diplomatic discussions cannot be a pretext for slowing down the supply of air defense systems and equipment that helps protect lives. We are working with our partners to ensure an adequate response," he said.
"The bilateral document on security guarantees for Ukraine is now essentially ready for finalization at the highest level with the President of the United States...We understand that the American side will engage with Russia, and we expect feedback on whether the aggressor is genuinely willing to end the war," he added.
Russia has shown resistance to many of the proposals contained in a plan worked out between Ukraine, its European allies, and Washington that envisages, among other things, international peacekeeping forces, security guarantees, and a US-led cease-fire monitoring and verification mechanism, among other things.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement on January 8 that the latest points contained in the plan were nothing near acceptable for Moscow, calling them "dangerous" and "destructive."
The diplomatic talk comes as Russian strikes plunged many in Ukraine into darkness and leaving them without heat in freezing temperatures.
Borys Filatov, mayor of the city of Dnipro, said the overnight strikes that hit his and other cities across the country have created "an emergency situation on a national scale."
Ukraine's Energy Ministry said in a statement that around 800,000 consumers in the Dnipropetrovsk region alone remain without power as temperatures are expected to drop to minus 11 degrees Celsius.
"There is absolutely no military rationale in such strikes on the energy sector and infrastructure that leave people without electricity and heating in wintertime," Zelenskyy said in a post on social media.
"This is Russia's war specifically against our people, against life in Ukraine -- an attempt to break Ukraine."
Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko warned that deteriorating weather conditions would further strain households in the affected regions.
"Ukraine's energy system is under daily attack from the enemy, and energy workers are operating under extremely challenging conditions to provide people with electricity and heat," she wrote on Telegram.
The head of the Zaporizhzhya region's military administration, Ivan Fedorov, said the region completely lost power late in the evening of January 7, adding that it was the region's first full blackout in years.
Serhiy, the head of a hospital in Dnipro, told RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service that the facility was dealing with an influx of patients when the blackout hit.
"When the lights went off, we had to work with [energy generators]. We had just received 37 wounded soldiers," he said. "A very big number of the patients were delivered from elsewhere in the region, where medical aid was not possible to provide due to the blackout."
Following Ukraine's attempts to restore power in the region, another major city in the Dnipropetrovsk region was attacked by Russia.
Kryviy Rih Mayor Oleksandr Vilkul said that two Russian ballistic missiles targeted residential buildings in the city on January 8, leaving at least 10 people injured.
He also warned that "many" Shahed drones were heading toward the area immediately after the strikes.
Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhya are densely populated industrial regions near the front lines, with parts of their territory under Russian occupation.
They have been repeatedly targeted by Russian attacks since the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Moscow has repeatedly claimed it doesn't target Ukraine's civilian infrastructure despite mounting evidence to the contrary.
Data shows Russian forces intensified strikes on Ukraine's energy and gas infrastructure at the beginning of autumn 2025, disrupting supplies during the heating season.
According to government figures, Russia has carried out more than 4,500 attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure since February 2022, when Moscow launched its full-scale invasion.
Meanwhile, the United Nations has warned that, with temperatures plunging below freezing and cities facing long, daily power cuts, Ukrainian civilians are again bracing for winter under fire.
"The people of Ukraine do not have the privilege of waiting for better conditions. They are enduring a fourth winter since the escalation of this war, under fire and in the dark," UN Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator Joyce Msuya said.
