KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday accused Russia of ramping up strikes across his country in order to pressure Ukraine and its allies at US-brokered talks scheduled for next week.

Zelensky said the latest barrage came “ahead of another joint effort with our partners to reinvigorate negotiations” and charged that “by intensifying its attacks on Ukraine and our infrastructure at this very moment, Russia is trying to additionally lay the groundwork for putting pressure on Ukraine’s position and that of its partners.”

Meanwhile, the Russian strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure overnight caused power cuts in five regions, the Ukrainian energy ministry said Saturday as the country braces for another harsh winter of war.

Russia has continued to attack Ukraine’s energy infrastructure despite renewed diplomatic efforts to end the war, which will see US, Russian and Ukrainian officials hold trilateral meetings in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Zelensky had warned on Friday that more attacks on the country’s energy sector and civilian infrastructure were imminent.

“Overnight, the enemy launched a massive attack on a number of energy facilities in Ukraine,” the energy ministry said in a statement.

Consumers in the Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kyiv, Zhytomyr and Kharkiv regions were left without power, and electricity transmission in the capital and surrounding region was “significantly hampered,” it added.

It did not say how many homes were affected.

Zelensky said on social media that Russia had launched 36 ballistic missiles and 172 drones in a “combined attack.”

“Russia is preparing for the trilateral talks by launching ballistic missiles at Ukraine’s critical infrastructure,” he said.

He urged the United States — where President Donald Trump’s Republican party just suffered heavy midterm election losses — to increase its flagging aid to Ukraine.