Kyiv braces for its hardest winter as power outages become routine

Kyiv faces its hardest winter since the war began, with routine power outages and water pressure drops becoming common for millions of residents, according to The Wall Street Journal. The city is bracing for severe conditions as Russia shifts its strategy to target urban infrastructure. Russia's new approach focuses on long-range missile and drone campaigns against Ukrainian cities to break civilian morale, after struggling on the eastern front with costly, minimal gains. Kyiv's energy infrastructure has accumulated massive damage over the war, with last year's attacks causing long-term harm to generating capacity. Experts predict outages lasting at least 12 hours daily across Ukraine in freezing temperatures, potentially reaching 20 hours in some regions. While polls show most Kyiv residents remain determined to resist, rental vacancies in the capital have surged nearly two-thirds since August as people relocate westward, though no region offers full safety from attacks.