Russia is escalating its assault on the infrastructure that keeps Ukraine’s capital functioning, leaving residents facing repeated disruptions to electricity and water as temperatures fall.
Repeated Russian strikes have damaged the power network serving Kyiv and surrounding areas. Outages are stretching for hours, water service has been interrupted and parts of the city’s electric transit system have also been affected. Ukrainian officials say the capital region is facing some of the country’s most severe energy disruptions.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko has warned that continued Russian attacks could push the capital toward a far more serious blackout, saying repeated strikes are putting critical energy facilities at risk.
The infrastructure campaign comes as Ukraine is also reeling from a mass-casualty Russian attack in the Zaporizhzhia region.
Ukrainian authorities now say at least 53 people were killed when Russian bombs struck a school compound being used to distribute humanitarian aid in Komyshuvakha. Search crews are still working through the wreckage, meaning the death toll could rise further.
The Nov. 2 attack has become the deadliest Russian strike in the Zaporizhzhia region since the full-scale invasion began. Authorities say roughly 50 people remain missing.
Another development, this one thousands of miles from the battlefield, is drawing anger from advocates for Ukrainian children taken by Russia.
First lady Melania Trump hosted Russian and Ukrainian representatives at the White House Thursday, highlighting a humanitarian operation in Russian-occupied Oleshky that allowed civilians to leave the area and humanitarian assistance to reach them.
But one member of the Russian delegation has a controversial history.
Yana Lantratova is Russia’s human rights commissioner. She is also under U.S. sanctions, and Ukraine accuses her of helping remove children from occupied Ukrainian territory and transfer them to Russia.
It is a story Scripps News has followed for nearly four years.
READ MORE | Scripps News Investigates: Ukraine's stolen orphans
One of the children tied to those allegations is Margarita Prokopenko, who was just 10 months old when she was taken from the Kherson Children’s Home in 2022. Ukrainian authorities accuse Lantratova of involvement in removing Margarita and another child from the region.
Margarita was later given a new Russian identity and adopted into the family of prominent Russian politician Sergey Mironov, according to Ukrainian authorities and records uncovered by subsequent investigations. Her Ukrainian family has spent years trying to bring her home.
For advocates trying to recover Ukraine’s stolen children, Lantratova’s appearance at a White House event devoted to humanitarian cooperation presents a stark contradiction: The woman Russia now calls its human rights commissioner is someone Ukraine accuses of helping take its children.
