Heavy snowfall is set to cover Kyiv starting today and lasting until at least midweek, with the mercury dropping below freezing as millions living in Ukraine’s capital struggle without access to heat and electricity.
Restrictions on the use of the country’s scarce electricty resource remain in place across 14 regions and Kyiv, as president Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly used his nightly video addresses to urge citizens to use power sparingly.
It comes after Russian forces bombarded critical power generation sites across Ukraine and in the past week inflicted some of the worst damage so far on the country’s infrastructure, leaving millions of people with no light, water or heat.
At least 32 civilians have been killed in Russian shelling of the liberated city of Kherson so far, officials said yesterday.
And overnight an aide to Mr Zelensky said Ukrainians who defended Mariupol and the Snake Island outpost – now symbolic of Kyiv’s early resistance against Russia – were among scores freed in prisoner swaps this week.
Nine Russians and 12 Ukrainians were freed on Saturday – bringing the total number of prisoners returned to Kyiv this week to 98, according to officials.
