FILE PHOTO: Vitaliy Kim, governor of Mykolaiv region, speaks to the media, as Russia's attacks on Ukraine continue, in Mykolaiv, Ukraine June 8, 2022. REUTERS/Edgar Su/File Photo
(Reuters) - Russian drone strikes have damaged a thermal power plant in Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine overnight, leaving at least 100,000 people without heating as temperatures plunge below freezing, top Ukrainian officials said on Sunday.
"This has nothing to do with the fighting and the situation at the front, but it proves once again that the Russians are fighting against our people and against life in Ukraine," President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on the Telegram messenger.
"And they are fighting meanly, without relieving pressure. This is not what those who really want peace to be restored and are preparing for negotiations do."
Earlier, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said the attack on the power plant was "done deliberately to leave people without heat in sub-zero temperatures and create a humanitarian catastrophe."
Russia attacked Ukraine with 143 drones overnight but Ukrainian military said it had shot down 95 of them while 46 did not reach their targets, likely thanks to the use of electromagnetic countermeasures that disrupt drone attacks.
At least one person was injured in the overnight attacks which also damaged houses in the Kyiv region, Ukrainian officials said. The temperature in Mykolaiv is expected to fall to minus 7 degrees Celsius (19.4 Fahrenheit) on Sunday night.
Zelenskiy again urged Western allies to give Ukraine more air defences, with Russia now holding 20% of Ukrainian territory and slowly advancing in the east as Moscow's full-scale invasion nears its third anniversary.
He cited data showing that in the past week Russia had unleashed about 1,220 aerial bombs, over 850 drones and more than 40 missiles into government-controlled areas of Ukraine.
There was no immediate comment from Russia.
Both sides deny targeting civilians in the war that Russia started with its invasion in Ukraine nearly three years ago.
"Europe and the world must be better protected from such evil and prepared to confront it," Zelenskiy said in his Telegram post.
"Together with Europe, the U.S., and all our partners, we can end this war with a just and lasting peace."
However, U.S. President Donald Trump shocked European allies and Ukraine this week by calling Putin without consulting them or Kyiv beforehand and declaring an immediate start to peace talks.
Trump's Ukraine envoy then said Europe won't have a seat at the table for Ukraine peace talks, after Washington sent a questionnaire to European capitals to ask what they could contribute to security guarantees for Kyiv.
European countries are planning a meeting on Monday to discuss the war in Ukraine.
(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne and Pavel Polityuk in Kyiv; editing by Kate Mayberry, Kirsten Donovan, Mark Heinrich and Clelia Oziel)
