Kyiv residents have been urged to cut down on electricity use in the evenings, after a Russian missile strike disabled a power installation near the capital.
Officials said power had been restored across Ukraine earlier after Russian missiles hit energy infrastructure.
But Ukraine’s state energy operator Ukrenergo has still called for the reduction between 17:00 and 23:00 (15:00 – 21:00 GMT), warning of possible power cuts.
The request was not confined to Kyiv.
The deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential administration, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, said the populations of Zhytomyr, Cherkasy and Chernihiv should also save electricity.
“If this advice is ignored, we will have difficulties and it will be necessary to take out the candles,” he warned on Telegram.
Ukrenergo has urged residents to save electricity in the evening by not using energy-guzzling appliances, switching off unnecessary lighting and doing their washing at night.
However, the BBC’s Paul Adams reports that Kyiv streets are already darker than usual at night, but “life very much goes on”.
The energy warning comes as more heavy fighting is reported north of Russian-held Kherson.
Kirill Stremousov, a Russian-appointed leader in the southern region, said Ukrainian shelling was coming from the Dudchany area, on the west bank of the Dnieper river (called Dnipro by Ukrainians).
To cut off Russian troops in Kherson city, advancing Ukrainian forces have repeatedly bombarded bridges over the river.
As Ukrainian shelling increases, Russian-installed officials in the city have pleaded with Moscow to assist in relocating Kherson families to Russian cities.
After hurriedly staging so-called referendums in the regions, President Vladimir Putin declared Kherson and three other Ukrainian regions to be a part of Russia, a decision that has been roundly condemned internationally.
Russian soldiers are allegedly responsible for shooting and killing Yuri Kerpatenko, the head conductor of the Kherson Music and Drama Theatre, in his home, according to Ukrainian prosecutors. There are numerous reports about it in Ukrainian media, but there are few specifics. He allegedly refused to work with the occupiers’ authorities.
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Russian oil depot fire
For two days running the governor of Belgorod, a Russian city 40km (25 miles) north of Ukraine, has reported Ukrainian cross-border shelling. One shell caused a major fire at an oil depot near the city on Saturday, Vyacheslav Gladkov said, adding later that firefighters had extinguished it.
Ukrainian shelling set fire to an electricity substation in Belgorod on Friday, he reported on Telegram. In that case too the fire was contained. Kyiv has not commented on the Russian claims, but there have been explosions in the Belgorod region previously, which Russia blamed on Ukrainian shelling.
Image caption,Oil depot fire near Belgorod – pic from Governor Gladkov (Telegram)
On Friday President Putin said he saw no need for further massive missile strikes against Ukraine “for now”, on the scale of last Monday’s, which hit Kyiv and other cities, killing at least 20 civilians. Mr Putin said those strikes were retaliation for the attack that damaged Russia’s huge Kerch bridge – a key strategic link to annexed Crimea.
Another focus of fighting in the south is Zaporizhzhia – Ukrainian officials in the city say it was hit by more Russian missiles and Iranian-made Shahed “kamikaze” drones overnight. There was damage to energy facilities and industrial infrastructure there.
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant – Europe’s largest – lies just south of the city, under Russian control, and repeated shelling in the area has raised fears of a nuclear disaster.
The US has announced an additional $725 million (£649 million) in military aid for Ukraine, including ammunition for artillery, anti-tank weapons, and Humvee armored vehicles. Since Russia’s invasion on February 24, the US has contributed more than $17 billion in military aid, by far the largest amount of any of Ukraine’s Western allies.
A new Russian military contingent, which Belarus claims is a component of a regional border protection force, has reportedly arrived on Ukraine’s northern border. Including those who launched an unsuccessful attack on Kiev, Belarus has hosted Russian forces engaged in the conflict in Ukraine. However, it hasn’t crossed the border with its own troops yet.
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