KYIV: Ukraine began curbing electricity consumption on Thursday as it raced to carry out repairs on infrastructure destroyed by Russian bombing as winter approaches.
Energy-saving measures were put in place across the country after Russian missile and drone strikes destroyed at least 30 percent of the country’s power stations in a week.
Following blackouts in parts of the capital Kyiv overnight, the city’s mayor Vitali Klitschko urged businesses to limit screens and signage lights “as much as possible.”
“Even small savings and a reduction in electricity consumption in every home will help stabilize the operation of the national energy system,” he said on social media.
Ukrainians have responded defiantly to the attacks.
“It’s not going to change our attitude, maybe we will only hate them more,” said Olga, 22, a resident of Dnipro in central Ukraine.
“I would rather sit in the cold, with no water and electricity than be in Russia,” she said.
Russia invaded Ukraine in February and quickly seized more than 20 percent of the country but has lost ground after a series of battlefield defeats in recent weeks.
Moscow has retaliated by annexing the areas it holds and launching a wave of strikes on energy facilities, including with what Kyiv and Western powers said are Iranian drones.
Russia and Iran have denied the use of such drones in Ukraine but the EU on Thursday imposed sanctions on three Iranian generals and an arms firm accused of supplying them.
“This is our clear response to the Iranian regime providing Russia with drones, which it uses to murder innocent Ukrainian citizens,” Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala tweeted.
Russian foreign ministry spokesman said the West was seeking to put “pressure” on Tehran, while Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba welcomed the “prompt action” from Brussels.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Russia’s “scorched earth” attacks only strengthened the Western alliance against Moscow.
But Russian lawmaker Andrey Gurulev told state television the attacks were “extremely effective” and would “collapse” Ukraine.
In his nightly address Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of energy “terror.”
After a meeting with energy companies, he said preparations were under way “for all possible scenarios with a view to winter.”
The government was “working on the creation of mobile power supply points for critical infrastructure,” he added.
Russian President Vladimir Putin also on Wednesday declared martial law in four annexed areas and heightened security in Russian regions bordering Ukraine.
The move came after Kremlin proxies in the Russian-occupied Kherson region in southern Ukraine said they were leaving the area in the face of a Ukrainian counter-offensive.
Moscow-installed officials also said they would be organizing an “evacuation” of tens of thousands of civilians from the area.
The region’s main city, also called Kherson, has been in Moscow’s hands since the earliest days of the invasion.
Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, denounced Moscow’s move as criminal.
“Putin’s martial law in the annexed regions of Ukraine is preparation for the mass deportation of the Ukrainian population to depressed areas of Russia in order to change the ethnic composition of the occupied territory,” Danilov said.
Pro-Russian officials in the town of Oleshky across the Dnieper said residents from Kherson city were already arriving.
Russia’s Rossiya 24 TV showed images of people waiting to board ferries, unable to use bridges damaged by Ukraine.
Ukraine’s resilience has won plaudits internationally and the European Parliament on Wednesday awarded the annual Sakharov Prize for human rights to “brave” Ukrainians.
The award was welcomed by Natalya Boykiv, an engineer, walking in Kyiv city center.
“We deserve it,” said.
“The world should see who Ukrainians are. Thanks to this we attract the world’s attention,” the 24-year-old added.
Meanwhile, in parts of Ukraine recently recaptured from Russian forces, repairs were under way before the onset of winter. Many residents there are still depending on humanitarian aid.
“Apart from this, nothing is working,” said Ivan Zakharchenko, a 70-year-old resident of Izyum queueing for aid in the square where Zelensky celebrated the town’s liberation just over a month ago.
Ukraine curbs electricity use after Russian strikes
https://arab.news/zw4p6
Ukraine curbs electricity use after Russian strikes
- Energy-saving measures were put in place across the country after Russian missile and drone strikes
- Kyiv’s mayor Vitali Klitschko urged businesses to limit screens and signage lights "as much as possible"
World welcomes 2026 with fireworks after year of turmoil
- Australia holds defiant celebrations after its worst mass shooting in nearly 30 years
- Hong Kong holds a subdued event after a deadly fire in tower blocks
PARIS, France: People around the globe toasted the end of 2025 on Wednesday, bidding farewell to one of the hottest years on record, packed with Trump tariffs, a Gaza truce and vain hopes for peace in Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin used his traditional New Year address to tell his compatriots their military “heroes” would deliver victory in Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II, while his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky said his country was “10 percent” away from a deal to end the fighting.
Earlier, New Year celebrations took on a somber tone in Sydney as revellers held a minute of silence for victims of the Bondi Beach shooting before nine tons of fireworks lit up the harbor city at the stroke of midnight.
Seeing in the New Year in Moscow, Natalia Spirina, a pensioner from the central city of Ulyanovsk, said that in 2026 she hoped for “our military operation to end as soon as possible, for the guys to come home and for peace and stability to finally be established in Russia.”
Over the border in Vyshgorod, Ukrainian beauty salon manager Daria Lushchyk said the war had made her work “hell” — but that her clients were still coming regardless.
“Nothing can stop our Ukrainian girls from coming in and getting themselves glam,” Lushchyk said.
Back in Sydney, heavily armed police patrolled among hundreds of thousands of people lining the shore barely two weeks after a father and son allegedly opened fire on a Jewish festival at Bondi Beach, killing 15 people in Australia’s deadliest mass shooting for almost 30 years.
Parties paused for a minute of silence an hour before midnight, with the famed Sydney Harbor Bridge bathed in white light to symbolize peace.
Pacific nations including Kiribati and New Zealand were the first to see in 2026, with Seoul and Tokyo following Sydney in celebrations that will stretch to glitzy New York via Scotland’s Hogmanay festival.
More than two million people are expected to pack Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana Beach for what authorities have called the world’s biggest New Year’s Eve party.
In Hong Kong, a major New Year fireworks display planned for Victoria Harbor was canceled in homage to 161 people killed in a fire in November that engulfed several apartment blocks.
Truce and tariffs
This year has brought a mix of stress and excitement for many, war for others still — and offbeat trends, with Labubu dolls becoming a worldwide craze.
Thieves plundered the Louvre in a daring heist, and K-pop heartthrobs BTS made their long-awaited return.
The world lost pioneering zoologist Jane Goodall, the Vatican chose a new, American, pope and the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk laid bare America’s deep political divisions.
Donald Trump returned as US president in January, launching a tariff blitz that sent global markets into meltdown.
Trump used his Truth Social platform to lash out at his sliding approval ratings ahead of midterm elections to be held in November.
“Isn’t it nice to have a STRONG BORDER, No Inflation, a powerful Military, and great Economy??? Happy New Year!” he wrote.
After two years of war that left much of the Gaza Strip in ruins, US pressure helped land a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in October — though both sides have accused each other of flagrant violations.
“We bid farewell to 2025 with deep sorrow and grief,” said Gaza City resident Shireen Al-Kayali. “We lost a lot of people and our possessions. We lived a difficult and harsh life, displaced from one city to another, under bombardment and in terror.”
In contrast, there was optimism despite abiding internal challenges in Syria, where residents of the capital Damascus celebrated a full year since the fall of Bashar Assad.
“There is no fear, the people are happy, all of Syria is one and united, and God willing ... it will be a good year for the people and the wise leadership,” marketing manager Sahar Al-Said, 33, told AFP against a backdrop of ringing bells near Damascus’s Bab Touma neighborhood.
“I hope, God willing, that we will love each other. Loving each other is enough,” said Bashar Al-Qaderi, 28.
Sports, space and AI
In Dubai, thousands of revellers queued for up to nine hours for a spectacular fireworks and laser display at the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building.
After a build-up featuring jet skis and floating pianos on an adjacent lake, a 10-minute burst of pyrotechnics and LED effects lit up the needle-shaped, 828-meter tall (2,717-feet) tower.
The coming 12 months promise to be full of sports, space and questions over artificial intelligence.
NASA’s Artemis II mission, backed by tech titan Elon Musk, will launch a crewed spacecraft to circle the moon during a 10-day flight, more than 50 years since the last Apollo lunar mission.
After years of unbridled enthusiasm, AI is facing scrutiny and nervous investors are questioning whether the boom might now resemble a market bubble.
Athletes will gather in Italy in February for the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics.
And for a few weeks in June and July, 48 nations will compete in the biggest football World Cup in history in the United States, Mexico and Canada.
