New power outage in Kharkiv while Russian shelling destroys school

There were renewed electricity outages in the north-eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv and surrounding areas, where Kiev's forces are rapidly pushing back Russian troops.

The governor of Kharkiv province, Oleh Synyehubov, said on Telegram that "the enemy shelled Losova at around three o'clock in the morning and there was a direct hit in an educational institution."

He shared images showing the complete destruction of a school building in the small town around 150 kilometres south of Kharkiv city.

The authorities said the power outages were due to Russian shelling that damaged a reserve supply line.

While the city of Kharkiv was not directly hit, it knocked out power to some areas. The outage meant Kharkiv's metro had to be shut down. Electricians were said to be heading to the area to fix the problem.

Kiev has characterized such attacks on utilities as revenge for its recent successes to retake territory.

Meanwhile, images of a downed drone allegedly of Iranian origin were shared online, but the information could not be independently verified.

The authorities said three civilians have died and eight people were injured in the region in the last 24 hours. Russian forces also targeted the city of Kupyansk in the east of the Kharkiv region, retaken by Ukrainians in their counteroffensive.

The Ukrainian army has recaptured more than 6,000 square kilometres of land from Russian occupying forces since the beginning of September, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

"Our troops remain on the move," he said in Kiev in comments on Monday evening. He called for anti-aircraft weapons to be supplied more quickly from abroad, given the Russian missile attacks on the power grid.

British intelligence analysts assessing the progress of the counter offensive so far said leading Russian army units have been "severely degraded" during fighting.

A leading and prestigious army unit that withdrew from Kharkiv "suffered heavy casualties in the initial phase of the invasion and had not been fully reconstituted prior to the Ukrainian counter-offensive in Kharkiv," the analysts said in a daily update repeatedly slammed by Moscow as disinformation.

Meanwhile in southern Ukraine, the power supply has improved to the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe where heavy fighting has raised fears of a potential catastrophe.

Occupied by Russian troops, the plant has now been reconnected to two reserve power lines after recent outages. One line can supply the cooling system of reactors which have been shut down for safety reasons, while the second is in reserve, the International Atomic Energy Agency said on Monday evening.

The plant's sixth and last reactor had been shut down so requires less power for cooling.