Ukraine updates: Kyiv administration says power restored

The military administration in the Ukrainian capital reported Sunday that power had been "almost completely" restored in the city as of 9 a.m. local time (0700 GMT), according to a post on the Telegram messaging app.

Repair work on the power grid is now in its "final phase," authorities said.

Water, heat and mobile networks have also been restored in the city, according to the Telegram post.

However, Kyiv authorities said "planned outages" and "local power failures" were still possible.

Russia has increasingly been targeting Ukraine's energy infrastructure over the past weeks, with a series of strikes on Wednesday leaving millions of people without light, water or heat.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said six million households across the country had been affected by power cuts following Wednesday's strikes, with around 600,000 affected in Kyiv.

Zelenskyy late Friday criticized Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko for doing what he said was a poor job at setting up emergency heat shelters.

Klitschko hit back Sunday, insisting that 430 warming centers were already in place in Kyiv, and some 100 more were planned in case of extreme conditions.

But one of the president's top allies said Klitschko's comments "differ considerably" from what residents were reporting.

Here are the other main headlines from the war in Ukraine on Sunday, November 27:

Zelenskyy: Russia planning fresh strikes on Ukraine 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned his citizens to prepare and work together to withstand fresh missiles that he said will almost certainly hit the country in the coming days.

"We understand that the terrorists are planning new strikes. We know this for a fact," Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address Sunday. "And as long as they have missiles, they, unfortunately, will not calm down."

Zelenskyy said next week could well be as difficult as the last, when attacks on electricity infrastructure left Ukrainians with the most acute power cuts since Russian troops invaded in February, just as winter set in.

"Our defense forces are getting ready. The entire country is getting ready," he added. "We have worked out all the scenarios, including with our partners."

Ukraine nuclear boss sees signs Russia may leave Zaporizhzhia plant

The head of Ukraine's state-run nuclear energy firm said there were signs that Russian forces might be preparing to leave Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

"One gets the impression they're packing their bags and stealing everything they can," Petro Kotin, head of Energoatom, said on Ukrainian television.

The plant, Europe's largest, was seized by Russian forces in March.

Ukraine and Russia accused each other on Friday of risking catastrophe by shelling the nuclear power facility.

Last weekend, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi said whoever was responsible for the attacks was "playing with fire."

The UN's nuclear watchdog has repeatedly called on both sides to implement a nuclear safety and security zone around Zaporizhzhia.

"There are a very large number of reports in Russian media that it would be worth vacating the [plant] and may be worth handing control [of it] to the IAEA," Kotin said.

Russia has not indicated a withdrawal but has previously said it would hand over control of the plant to the IAEA if Ukraine drops any plans to retake the area.

Russia intensifies bombings in Kherson

Russian forces have shelled the Kherson region more than 50 times over the weekend, according to Ukrainian authorities.

Yaroslav Yanushevych, governor of the region, said towns along the northwestern bank of the Dnipro River had been targeted.

Russian forces were dug in on the eastern bank of the Dnipro after withdrawing from the city of Kherson and other settlements on the western bank.

At least 32 people have been killed in intense shelling since the withdrawal, police said on Saturday.

Only around 5% of the city residents had power in their homes after Russian forces shelled the power lines that connect the city.

Russian strikes hit Zelenskyy's hometown

A Russian airstrike has hit the Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, the hometown of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the southern Dnipropetrovsk region, according to local authorities.

Dnipropetrovsk Governor Valentyn Reznichenko said in a Telegram post that the strike destroyed transport infrastructure, without giving further details.

The region's military administration has urged residents to hide in bomb shelters.

Also in the Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukrainian authorities reported heavy artillery and grenade fire in the city of Nikopol.

NATO chief Stoltenberg praises German support for Ukraine

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg praised Berlin's support of Ukraine in comments published by German newspaper Welt am Sonntag.

"Germany's strong support is making a decisive difference," Stoltenberg said, adding that German weapons were saving lives in Ukraine.

"We must all maintain our support for Ukraine and increase it," he insisted.

Stoltenberg made the comments two days ahead of a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Bucharest, Romania.

Ukraine's grain exports fall significantly in November — minister

Ukraine's Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said Ukraine will have exported less than 3 million tons of grain in November as Russia tries to limit ship inspections at ports.

In October, some 4.2 million tons of grain left Ukrainian ports, Kubrakov wrote on his Facebook page.

"It was the custom to conduct 40 inspections a day, now, due to Russia's position, there are five times fewer checks," he said.

Kubrakov said 77 ships were queuing to pass the inspection in Turkey while the three Black Sea ports use half or less their capacity.

The statement comes after Russia and Ukraine recently agreed to extend for another 120 days a UN and Turkey-brokered grain export deal. The deal was first reached in July.

The hope in inking the agreement was to ease global food shortages by facilitating Ukraine's export of its agricultural products by allowing ships to travel without being attacked on specific routes from Ukraine across the Black Sea to the Bosporus.

Dozens of Ukrainian soldiers hospitalized after bus crash in Latvia

A road accident in Latvia has resulted in the hospitalization of 25 Ukrainian soldiers and an Estonian soldier, Estonian public broadcaster ERR reported on Sunday.

The incident occurred after the bus they were traveling in collided with a truck.

The coach travelling from Tallinn to Riga was chartered by the Estonian army. The driver was killed in the Saturday evening crash, ERR said.

The report did not say why the Ukrainian soldiers were in Latvia.

The crash was one of several that occurred along the road on Saturday as ice and snow made driving conditions dangerous, Latvia's public broadcaster said.

Russian navy, air force still powerful: Estonian defense minister

Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur has said Russia has not been significantly weakened in the war in Ukraine.

"We have to be honest and clear: The Russian navy and air force are more or less as big as they were before the war," Pevkur told Germany's dpa news agency. 

Pevkur said that although Russia's land forces had lost strength, they would "sooner rather than later" return to their previous size.

"We have no reason to believe that the threat from Russia is somehow reduced or that the threat to NATO is reduced," he said.

The minister warned against "war weariness" in Western countries, arguing that "this is exactly what Russia wants to achieve."

"Russia is ready to suffer longer," he said.

Tallinn plans to spend 2.84% of GDP on defense in 2023 and 3.2% in 2024, Pevkur said. The general target for NATO countries is 2%.

More coverage of the war in Ukraine

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has pledged aid to help expedite Ukrainian grain shipments in the face of a global food crisis, as Kyiv commemorated the 90th anniversary of the Holodomor famine.

sri, mm, sdi/ar, wmr (AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters)