Extract from ABC News
Emergency tents where people can warm up in Kyiv. (AP:Vladyslav Musiienko)
In short:
Families in Ukraine are in constant survival mode, with hypothermia now a risk, UNICEF has said.
Russia has been attacking the country's energy infrastructure, with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy declaring a state of emergency for the sector, earlier this week.
What's next?
Mr Zelenskyy has said Ukrainian negotiators are on their way to the US and he is hopeful a deal on security guarantees and a post-war recovery package could be signed at the World Economic Forum in Davos next week.
International aid agencies say children across Ukraine risk hypothermia in freezing temperatures as emergency stocks of power generators run low following Russian attacks on energy infrastructure.
The UN children's agency UNICEF said it faced a race against time to help restore water and heating services that have been pounded in missile and drone attacks as the fourth anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine approaches.
"Children and families are in constant survival mode," UNICEF Country Representative for Ukraine Munir Mammadzade told reporters in Geneva.
Mr Mammadzade said people were trying to stay safe from strikes on high-rise buildings while temperatures sank to around minus 18 degrees Celsius at night.
Some families are stuffing their windows with soft toys to block out the freezing cold, UNICEF said.
Over recent days, AFP journalists in Kyiv have seen traffic lights powered down, shops and restaurants closed, and residents warming up and charging phones in tents set up by the state.
A woman gets warm at an emergency centre set up to support people during power outages in Boryspil. (AP: Dan Bashakov)
Stockpiles running low
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday he would declare a state of emergency in the energy sector.
A day later he announced that 400,000 people had been left without electricity after Russian aerial attacks on Kharkiv, the country's second-largest city.
Engineers and rescue crews have been braving sub-zero temperatures to restore operations at power plants and substations battered over recent days by Russian drones and missiles.
Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Friday Ukraine had fuel reserves for more than 20 days.
Kyiv and frontline regions face the harshest conditions, with thousands of homes in the capital as well as in Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Odesa and frontline towns left without electricity or heating for days on end.
"Without heat, people are at high risk for hypothermia, frostbite and respiratory illnesses," said Jaime Wah, Deputy Head of Delegation in Kyiv for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, adding that unpredictable power cuts disrupted the water supply and healthcare provision.
"It's unbearable to live in apartments with no heating or electricity. Families (in Kyiv) are resorting to consider leaving the city."
Residents get free food at an emergency centre set up to support people during power outages in Boryspil. (AP: Dan Bashakov)
Pre-positioned stockpiles of sleeping kits, generators and repair materials for buildings are running low because of the increasing need and limited funding.
An IFRC funding appeal for Ukraine and impacted countries is only 13 per cent covered for 2026 and 2027, leaving a funding gap of 262 million Swiss francs, it said.
UNICEF said it was providing high-capacity generators to support heating and water supplies to hospitals and schools, but called for more funding.
Hopes for deal-signing at Davos
Meanwhile, a Ukrainian delegation is en route to the US for talks on security guarantees and a post-war recovery package, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said, expressing hope the documents could be signed on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos next week.
During the talks, Kyiv's team also hopes to get clarity from the U.S. on the Russian stance towards US-backed diplomatic efforts to end the nearly four-year war, Mr Zelenskyy told a news conference in Kyiv alongside Czech President Petr Pavel.
"I think we have worked well with the American side, we are just not on the same side on some issues," Mr Zelenskyy said of the negotiations with Washington.
US President Donald Trump told Reuters earlier this week that he may meet with Mr Zelenskyy at the WEF, a meeting which the Ukrainian leader has publicly sought.
Mr Zelenskyy said that Ukraine had completed its part of the work on the documents outlining a "prosperity package" to unlock money for Ukraine's costly post-war recovery, as well as on US security guarantees designed to stop a future Russian attack. Ukrainian officials have said the country will need $US800 billion for its post-war reconstruction.
Washington has pushed Ukraine to agree to a peace framework that it will then present to Moscow, while Kyiv and its European allies have sought to ensure that Ukraine will not be attacked again by Russia in future.
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