After a huge overnight cross-border drone attack out of Ukraine, a sizeable chunk of Western Russia is experiencing a rare and significant blackout.

The outages have mostly been experienced in Belgorod Region in western Russia, according to Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov, who says that 40,000 residents were left without power starting Sunday evening.

Hospitals and other emergency facilities switched to generators, he noted in a message on Telegram. During the drone attacks a 10-year old boy was injured, he indicated.

Repair work has been ongoing, resulting in an update from local authorities as follows: "Following last night's work by our energy and emergency services, there is still a partial power outage in 24 settlements, affecting 5,400 residents – this includes Belgorod as well as the Belgorod, Valuyki, Volokonovka, Graivoron and Shebekino districts."

Ukraine's President Zelensky meanwhile seized upon the rare development to proclaim to the Russian public that this is what Ukrainians are experiencing on a daily basis.

He also warned in an online written message that Russians must bear the 'cost' of the war:

"The Russians do not understand the cost of all these blackouts, of all the hardships that the people of Ukraine experience and endure during this war. And this is not even a question of their morality, which they lack, but of their physical perception," he stated.

"They must understand the price of this. Ukraine strikes back, hitting military targets and energy facilities that sell their energy resources," he continued, before stating further: "Russia sells its energy resources and then uses that money exclusively for war. That is why Ukraine is taking absolutely just steps."

Russia has condemned the attack on its infrastructure, while engaging in stepped-up attacks of its own on Ukraine's energy grid and vital infrastructure.

Both sides over the last months have clearly increased their all-out assaults on each other's energy and weapons production sites, with the situation sliding, and aerial warfare growing more intense by the week.