Large-Scale electricity blackout hits Kharkiv, Ukraine

The centre of Ukraine’s second city Kharkiv was plunged into darkness on Sunday evening by an electricity blackout, a Reuters reporter said.

The cause and extent of the blackout in the northeastern city were not immediately clear. There were also unconfirmed social media reports of blackouts in other places and regions.

Earlier today, a Russian official in a southern region bordering Ukraine said on Sunday thousands of people had crossed the border as Kyiv’s army claimed to have pushed back Moscow’s forces in the country’s east.

“Over the past day, thousands of people have crossed the border. Most of them went to relatives in their own vehicles. Today, there are 1,342 people being housed in 27 temporary accommodation centres in the region,” Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of the Belgorod region said in a video statement on social media.

Ukraine said Sunday that its forces were pushing back Russia’s military from strategic holdouts in the east of the country after Moscow announced a retreat from Kyiv’s sweeping counter-offensive.

Also Read: Thousands’ fleeing Ukraine’s Kharkiv region into Russia: official

The speed of Ukraine’s fight back against Russia’s invasion has apparently caught Moscow’s military off-guard, bringing swathes of territory Russia had controlled for months back into Ukraine’s fold.