Vladimir Putin struck back at Ukraine overnight with devastating missile hits on the Ukrainian power grid plunging millions into darkness as Russian troops flee.
The blitz was in revenge for the military humiliation Russian forces have suffered in Kharkiv region where his troops are in retreat.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said the strikes aimed to "deprive people of light and heat" and he accused Putin of "terrorist acts" which hit civilian, not military targets.
Videos show strikes which plunged almost one third of Ukraine into darkness from power cuts.
Footage highlighted a strike on a key power plant in Kharkiv region, and more showed the city’s underground train system at standstill.
Flames were seen at a power plant in Vilnohirsk, Dnipropetrovsk region.
Russia released footage of combat missions by Su-35S fighter crews which it claimed were involved in destroying “military infrastructure facilities”.
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.
US ambassador to Kyiv Bridget Brink, denounced the overnight strikes calling them Putin’s “apparent response to Ukraine liberating cities and villages in the east”.
“Even through the impenetrable darkness, Ukraine and the civilised world clearly see these terrorist acts,” said Zelensky.
“Deliberate and cynical missile strikes on civilian critical infrastructure. No military facilities. Kharkiv and Donetsk regions were cut off.
“In Zaporizhia, Dnipropetrovsk, and Sumy there are partial problems with power supply.”
He bluntly taunted Putin: “Do you still think that [Ukrainians and Russians] are ‘one people’?
“Do you still think that you can scare us, break us, make us make concessions?
“You really did not understand anything? Don't you understand who we are? What are we for? What are we talking about?
“Lip reading: Without gas or without you? Without you.
“Without light or without you? Without you.
“Without water or without you? Without you.
“Without food or without you? Without you.
“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!”
It comes as Ukrainian forces have advanced north from Kharkiv to within 30 miles of the border with Russia and are also pressing to the south and east in the same region, Ukrainian chief commander General Valeriy Zaluzhnyi said.
Ukraine says it has now retaken 1,160 square miles this month amid reports Russia has ordered the withdrawal of its troops from the entire occupied Kharkiv region west of the Oskil River.
