DRAMATIC footage captures the moment a Russian missile blitzed a power plant in Ukraine triggering a massive explosion.
The strike at the CHPP-5 power in Kharkiv sparked huge shockwaves that ripped through the air as millions were plunged into darkness.
It comes as other footage shows strikes on power stations causing blackouts across multiple regions including Kharkiv and Donetsk.
Ukraine described the sweeping electricity cuts as an act of "revenge" after recent battlefield humiliations for the Kremlin.
Apart from the strike on a key power plant in the Kharkiv region, footage showed the city’s underground train system at standstill.
Flames were also seen at a power plant in Vilnohirsk, Dnipropetrovsk region.
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The attacks struck the largest thermal power plants in eastern and central Ukraine – Kharkovskaya and Zmievskaya in Kharkiv region, leading to a lack of generating capacity, according to Russian sources.
The plants provide central heading to Ukrainian homes, meaning the attack was aimed at harming civilians.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky slammed the “terrorist acts" and said the attacks aimed to “deprive people of light and heat”.
He said: “Even through the impenetrable darkness, Ukraine and the civilized world clearly see these terrorist acts.
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“Cold, hunger, darkness and thirst are not as scary and deadly for us as your ‘friendship and brotherhood’.
“But history will put everything in its place.
“And we will be with gas, light, water and food.. and WITHOUT you!”
The plants provide central heading to Ukrainian homes, meaning the attack was aimed at harming civilians.
The Rybar pro-war Telegram channel said: “The collapse of the power system has spread to the networks of Kharkiv, Sumy, Dnepropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia and Odesa regions.
“It also affected the areas of Donetsk regions controlled by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Kyiv region and the capital of the country.”
It added that electric trains stopped “almost all over the country", and in Poltava several trolleybuses caught fire right on the streets.
“This measure is a good signal for hotheads making loud statements against the background of the success of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Kharkiv region.
“So the impact on the critical infrastructure of the enemy must continue.
“And not only at substations and thermal power plants, but also at bridges across the Dnieper.”
US ambassador to Kyiv Bridget Brink denounced the strikes calling them Putin’s “apparent response to Ukraine liberating cities and villages in the east”.
Russia had used missile strikes “to attempt to destroy critical civilian infrastructure.”
It comes the Putin's troops have suffered catastrophic losses with Ukraine estimated to have reclaimed the majority of Russian-occupied territory in the region in a stunning counter-attack.
Dramatic footage shows the moment a Russian fighter jet crashed to the ground in a massive fireball just moments after take-off.
The onslaught over the last week has seen thousands of Russians flee across the border on bikes in a desperate bid to avoid the conflict.
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As the offensive appears to be on the brink of collapse, Russian troops are abandoning huge quantities of weapons such as tanks on the battlefield.
A captured commander has revealed that Russian troops chose to shoot and blow themselves up rather than fight in battle.
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