kyiv when the power is out as it so often is the highrise apartment overlooking ukraines wartorn capital feels like a deathtrap no lights no water no way to cook food and the risk of not being able to escape from the 21st floor in time should a russian missile strike even when electricity comes back its never on for longrussian strikes are plunging ukraine into the stone age says anastasia pyrozhenko in a recent 24hour spell her 26story highrise only had power for half an hour she says the military living conditions have driven her and her husband from their apartmentour building is the highest in the area and is a great target for russian missiles so we left our apartment for our parents place and are preparing for the worst winter of our lives said the 25yearoldthe situation in ukraines capital kyiv and other major cities has deteriorated drastically following the largest missile attack on the countrys power grid on tuesday ukrainian stateowned grid operator ukrenergo reported that 40 of ukrainians were experiencing difficulties due to damage to at least 15 major energy hubs across the countrywarning that electricity outages could last anywhere from several hours to several days the network said that resilience and courage are what we need this winterkyiv mayor vitali klitschko too stressed the need to be ready and resilient in the face of a potential blackout worst case scenario actually i dont like to talk about that but i have to be prepared if we do not have electricity blackout no water no heating no services and no communication klitschko told the ap on fridayukrenergo said in a statement that thousands of kilometers of key highvoltage lines are not working affecting the entire countryit published a picture of a transformer station that was destroyed by a russian missile leaving around 400000 people without power according to the report there are dozens of such transformers in the power system now this equipment cannot be replaced quicklypresident volodymyr zelenskyy said after last weeks strikes that more than 10 million ukrainians were left without electricity by sunday he said some areas had seen improvementsthe restoration of networks and technical supply capabilities the demining of power transmission lines repairs everything goes on round the clock zelenskyy said in his nightly addressblackouts were scheduled sunday night in 15 regions and the city of kyiv he said ukrenergo said there would be scheduled outages in every region on mondaya sharp cold snap and the first snow have significantly complicated the situation in kyiv where temperatures are often below freezing in winter months the cold forces people to turn on their heaters which drastically increases the load on the grid and makes power outages longer in light of the dropping temperatures the kyiv authorities announced they were setting up communal heating pointsin the city of 3 million people 528 emergency points have been identified here residents will be able to keep warm drink tea recharge their phones and get