UKRAINE BRACES FOR OUTAGES IN WINTER AS RUSSIAN STRIKES CRIPPLE INFRA

KYIV: Ukrainians braced for a winter with little or no power in several areas including the capital where temperatures have already dropped below freezing as relentless Russian strikes crippled the country’s energy capacity.

President Volodymyr Zelensky urged people to conserve power, particularly in hard-hit areas such as Kyiv, Vinnytsia in the southwest, Sumy in the north and Odesa on the Black Sea.

Moscow’s response to military setbacks in recent weeks has included a barrage of missile strikes against power facilities, and Zelensky said half of the country’s power capacity had been knocked out by Russian rockets.

“The systematic damage to our energy system from strikes by the Russian terrorists is so considerable that all our people and businesses should be mindful and redistribute their consumption throughout the day,” Zelensky said in his nightly video address.

‘No major progress on nuclear security zone’

The Kremlin said on Tuesday that no substantive progress had been made towards creating a security zone around Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, once again accusing Kyiv of shelling at the plant and risking a nuclear incident.

Ukraine denies those charges and has levelled the same accusations at Russia.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin will in the coming days meet the mothers of reservists called up to fight in Ukraine, the Kremlin said on Tuesday.

The war in Ukraine has killed and wounded tens of thousands of soldiers on both sides, according to the United States, and the Russian invasion has triggered the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile crisis.