By Dan Peleschuk

KYIV, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Ukrainian officials were racing to restore power on Thursday after Russian drone attacks plunged two southeastern regions into near-total blackout overnight, strikes that President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said were aimed at "breaking" his country.

Moscow has intensified its attacks on Ukraine's energy system as Ukrainian forces fend off Russian advances on the battlefield and Kyiv faces U.S. pressure to quickly secure a peace deal.

Nearly 500,000 households in the industrialised region of Dnipropetrovsk, one of Ukraine's largest, were still without power on Thursday afternoon, according to private energy provider DTEK.

Earlier on Thursday, Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba had said more than 1 million consumers in the region had no heating or water supply.

"This is Russia's war specifically against our people, against life in Ukraine - an attempt to break Ukraine," Zelenskiy wrote on X after a European tour aimed at rallying support for Kyiv.

"Diplomatic discussions cannot be a pretext for slowing down the supply of air defence systems and equipment that helps protect lives."

Power has been restored to the other affected region, Zaporizhzhia, after a blackout there forced critical infrastructure to rely on reserves, Ukraine's energy ministry said.

Governor Ivan Fedorov said it was the first time in "recent years" that his region had faced a total blackout.

RESIDENTS AND INDUSTRY AFFECTED

In the regional capital of Dnipro, generators hummed outside storefronts downtown, where residents interviewed by Reuters said they had grown used to the frequent disruptions.

"This is not the first blackout, and I suspect that it will not be the last, so we are working - we are prepared," said a barista who introduced herself as Iryna.

Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said more than 1,500 charging and heating points had been rolled out across the Dnipropetrovsk region.

He added that police were announcing air-raid alerts via megaphone in parts of the region where sirens were not working.

In Kryvyi Rih, Zelenskiy's hometown, key steel maker ArcelorMittal said it had temporarily suspended some of its production. Zaporizhstal, another major producer, also reported a temporary suspension and said it was preparing for a safe restart.

Ukraine's energy ministry said eight mines across Dnipropetrovsk had faced blackouts overnight, but that workers had been evacuated.

Meanwhile, water supplies to the strategic city of Pavlohrad and nearby areas were expected to take up to a day to repair, said Mykola Lukashuk, head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional council.

Ukraine is bracing for colder weather later this week, which Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko has said is likely to compound disruptions to power and heating.

The energy ministry said on Wednesday that weather conditions had already cut power to some settlements in at least four regions of Ukraine.

(Additional reporting by Mykhailo Moskalenko in Dnipro; editing by Philippa Fletcher and Gareth Jones )