Russian strike on Ukrainian city cuts off utilities

Russian forces launched an overnight combined air strike on infrastructure in the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk, causing power and water outages.

Located on the Dnipro River, Kremenchuk is a major industrial hub and home to one of Ukraine's biggest oil refineries.

The city has been repeatedly hit by Russian missiles, including a 2022 strike on a crowded shopping mall that killed at least 21 people.

Mayor Vitalii Maletskyi said in a social media post that details of consequences of the strike would be released later on Sunday after damage assessment is completed.

City services were working to restore electricity, water and heating in districts where supplies were disrupted, he added.

Russia has intensified long-range strikes on Ukraine's power, heating and water infrastructure ahead of winter and seeking to sap public morale and disrupt industry after previous cold seasons in the nearly four-year war saw nationwide blackouts and emergency rationing.

A photo posted by the mayor showed a large blaze engulfing what looked like industrial buildings at night.

"We will restore everything," he wrote.

Earlier the Ukrainian military said it had conducted a new strike on Russia's oil industry, targeting a refinery in Ryazan, around 200km south-east of Moscow.

A hit on a facility had been detected, the General Staff in Kiev said on social media, adding that the refinery supplies the Russian armed forces.

The governor of the Ryazan region, Pavel Malkov, said on Telegram that debris had fallen on the grounds of an industrial plant, and that there were no casualties or major damage.

Twenty-nine Ukrainian drones were shot down over the area overnight, according to the governor. A residential apartment block was damaged but a fire on its roof was quickly extinguished.

However, unverified videos and photos circulating on social media allegedly showed a fire on the grounds of the nearby oil refinery and an impact on the roof of a high-rise building.

The refinery in Ryazan belongs to the Rosneft Group and was already hit by a Ukrainian drone attack at the end of October.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he had a long and "substantive" phone call with US President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner.

"Ukraine is determined to keep working in good faith with the American side to genuinely achieve peace. We agreed on the next steps and formats for talks with the United States," Zelenskiy said on X.

Witkoff and Kushner had held two days of talks with Ukraine's senior negotiator Rustem Umerov in Miami this week, which both sides called "constructive discussions on advancing a credible pathway toward a durable and just peace in Ukraine".

Witkoff had been expected to brief Umerov on his meeting in Moscow this week with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Zelenskiy said he was waiting for Umerov to give him a detailed report in person in Kyiv.

"Not everything can be discussed over the phone, so we need to work closely with our teams on ideas and proposals," Zelenskiy said.

"Our approach is that everything must be workable ? every crucial measure for peace, security, and reconstruction."

French President Emmanuel Macron said he would travel to London on Monday to meet Zelenskiy as well as the UK and German leaders to discuss ongoing negotiations under US mediation.

"Ukraine can count on our unwavering support. That is the whole point of the efforts we have undertaken as part of the Coalition of the Willing," Macron said on X.

"We will continue these efforts alongside the Americans to provide Ukraine with security guarantees, without which there can be no robust and lasting peace. For what is at stake in Ukraine is also the security of Europe as a whole," he added.

Macron also condemned "in the strongest possible terms" the strikes that targeted Ukraine on Friday night, in particular its energy and rail infrastructure.

"Russia is locked into an escalatory approach and is not seeking peace ... We must continue to put pressure on Russia to force it to make peace," he said.

with AP and DPA