Ukraine yesterday said Russia was preparing for a fresh wave of missile attacks on its energy grid that have plunged swathes of the country into the cold and dark.

Exports of Ukraine's grain will not reach 3 million tonnes in November as Russia tries to limit ship inspections at ports, Ukraine's Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said late on Sunday.

Snow fell in Kyiv and temperatures hovered around freezing yesterday as millions in and around the Ukrainian capital struggled with disruptions to electricity supply and central heating caused by waves of Russian air strikes.

Ukraine yesterday accused the Kremlin of using the same “genocidal” tactics that it used against it in the 1930s under Josef Stalin as Kyiv commemorated a Soviet-era famine that left millions of Ukrainians dead during the winter of 1932-33.

Russian shelling on the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson killed 15 civilians Friday, officials said, as engineers across the country sought to restore heat, water and power to major cities.

Nearly half of Kyiv residents were still without electricity yesterday as engineers battled to restore services two days after Russian strikes hammered the country’s energy grid.

Ukraine yesterday struggled to repair its battered power and water services after Russia targeted the electricity grid with dozens of cruise missiles and temperatures plunged.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged the United Nations Security Council to act against Russia over air strikes on civilian infrastructure that again plunged Ukrainian cities into darkness and cold as winter sets in.

Russia rained down volleys of missiles across Ukraine yesterday, hitting infrastructure in the capital Kyiv and other cities as Moscow pursued its campaign to knock out Ukraine’s power ahead of the looming winter.

President Vladimir Putin yesterday oversaw the launch of a new nuclear-powered icebreaker as Russia pushes to develop the Arctic and seeks new energy markets amid sanctions over Ukraine.

President Volodymyr Zelensky appealed to Ukrainians to conserve energy amid relentless Russian strikes that have already halved the country’s power capacity, as the United Nations’ health body warned of a humanitarian disaster in Ukraine this winter.

Ukraine yesterday said it had identified four locations where Russian forces tortured detainees in Kherson before Moscow withdrew troops from the southern Ukrainian city.

A deal to free up vital grain exports from Ukraine's southern Black Sea ports - which had been due to expire on November 19 - was extended on Thursday for 120 days.

Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is under Russian control, was rocked by shelling yesterday, drawing condemnation from the UN nuclear watchdog which said such attacks risked a major nuclear disaster.

Russia’s surge in missile strikes in Ukraine is partly designed to exhaust Kyiv’s supplies of air defenses and finally achieve dominance of the skies above the country, a senior Pentagon official said yesterday.

Millions of Ukrainians in more than a dozen provinces are experiencing severe power disruptions as temperatures plunge and almost half of the country’s energy infrastructure is in need of repair after weeks of Russian attacks, officials in Kyiv said.

More than 10 million Ukrainians are without electricity after dozens of Russian air attacks on the country’s energy infrastructure as winter sets in and temperatures plummet, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said.

Poland will not grant a Russian delegation visas to attend an Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) meeting in Lodz on December 1-2, a foreign ministry spokesman said on Friday.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said yesterday that neither the United States nor Russia planned to use nuclear weapons, following a meeting of their respective spy chiefs in Turkey.

An agreement allowing Ukraine to export grain through the Black Sea and aimed at relieving global food insecurity has been extended for 120 days, officials said yesterday, as Russia pounded Ukrainian energy facilities in a new wave of missile strikes.