Ukrainian Energy Minister Denys Shmygal said a power plant in the eastern suburbs of Kiev was seriously damaged in overnight Russian attacks, prompting authorities to redirect resources to restore heating to thousands of residents, Reuters reported.
Shmygal, in a Telegram post after a meeting on energy issues, said that "the Darnytskyi power plant was used exclusively for heating people and was seriously damaged. This is a war crime on the part of Russia."
The minister described the problems facing Ukraine's energy system as serious and said repairs would take "considerable time."
"Given the critical situation, the meeting discussed urgent ways to stabilize the situation," he wrote. "Repair teams and equipment are currently being reallocated... and we are considering options to redirect backup heating supplies to buildings that are experiencing longer outages."
Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba said on Telegram that 1,142 high-rise apartment buildings remain without heating in Kyiv.
The mayor of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, said a local power plant was also severely damaged.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that 17.8 million Ukrainians have benefited from government winter living assistance and that new assistance programs will be introduced in the future, Ukrinform reported.
The head of state said this in his nightly video address.
"It is important that government support programs are working. Up to 17.8 million Ukrainians have benefited from the support program," he said.
Zelensky recalled that programs to support small businesses and individual entrepreneurs have been launched and that programs with heating packages are being expanded.
"This, in particular, is a program for maintenance, purchase of generators and fuel. Only from the first day of the launch of this program today there have already been 4,000 applications. We are expanding the program with heating packages, and in the coming days in the regions where it is most difficult, at least 30,000 such packages will be distributed. Interest-free loans for the purchase of generators have also been launched," he said.
Also, according to him, within the framework of the program to support the most vulnerable social groups, 374,000 Ukrainians have received assistance in the amount of 6,500 hryvnias.
"There will be other support programs. We discussed this with Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Sviridenko. Everyone must work as hard as possible to make it easier for people during this winter crisis. Both the central government and the authorities in the regions, communities and businesses. Naturally, we expect that our partners will not remain on the sidelines," Zelensky said.