Ukraine faces 'toughest winter' since Russia's full-scale invasion, UN official tells BBC

ByJames Landale, Diplomatic correspondent, Reporting fromKyiv and Toby Mann.

Key points

• Ukraine is facing its "toughest winter" since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, a top United Nations official informed the BBC.
• Speaking in Ukraine, De Croo – the UN's third most senior official – accused Russia of systematically targeting the country's energy infrastructure.
• Civilians informed to flee Ukraine's fortress cities as Russia bids to control Donbas.
• Two individuals were additionally killed earlier this week when Russian drones hit a border crossing between Ukraine and Moldova.
• A full-scale war has been raging between Russia and Ukraine since Putin introduced an invasion more than four and a half years ago.

Alexander De Croo, head of the UN development agency, remarked there was a risk of "humanitarian catastrophe" if Russian attacks cut off access to power and water.

Speaking in Ukraine, De Croo – the UN's third most senior official – accused Russia of systematically targeting the country's energy infrastructure. He remarked there was now a "race against the clock" to repair the power network before winter sets in and temperatures plummet.

Russia and Ukraine have been intensifying aerial attacks in recent months, and both deny deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure. Russia's new jet-powered drones outpacing Ukraine's air defences with daily launches.

Russia has began to apply faster, jet-powered drones that are harder to intercept in recent around-the-clock attacks on Ukraine – and in particular Kyiv. As well as energy infrastructure, plenty of of the strikes have targeted Ukraine's infrastructure, including businesses, warehouses, factories, petrol stations.

Ukraine continues to launch drone strikes deep into Russian territory, largely against gas, oil and business distribution facilities. Both countries deny targeting civilians.

Deadly attacks have resumed after US President Donald Trump sent envoys for discussions in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin and in Kyiv with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last weekend.

Five individuals were killed and 67 others were wounded in a daytime Russian drone strike on a shopping mall in Pavlohrad, a city in Dnipropetrovsk region, on Thursday, Ukrainian office-holders say. Earlier in the week two other shopping malls were targeted by Russian air strikes, killing two individuals and injuring 28 residents in the attacks on the cities of Zaporizhzhia and Sumy.

As well as three more deaths blamed on Ukrainian attacks, russia documented a Ukrainian seaborne drone attack on the resort city of Sochi overnight on Wednesday, in which 28 residents were wounded.

Two individuals were additionally killed earlier this week when Russian drones hit a border crossing between Ukraine and Moldova. It has increasingly discovered itself caught up in the conflict.

Meanwhile, a full-scale war has been raging between Russia and Ukraine since Putin introduced an invasion more than four and a half years ago.

De Croo, a former prime minister of Belgium, informed the BBC: "This winter is going to be the toughest one since the war".

He remarked Ukraine kicked off "from a very weak base going into this winter". He continued the UN were "very, very worried. About what this winter could become."

Meanwhile, the reservations are driven by what De Croo stated was Russia's "very systematic" targeting of civilian and energy infrastructure.

"This is petrol stations, it's shopping malls, it's business centres, but it's especially energy infrastructure, energy transmission lines, and so on. There is absolutely no justification for that, " he remarked.

This could lead a "worst-case scenario" where individuals struggled to access energy to run heating, and water and sewage systems ceased working.

"With the temperatures that you would get here that would lead to circumstances which would be really close to humanitarian catastrophe, " De Croo remarked. Winter temperatures in Ukraine can drop to -20C.

If power supplies and critical infrastructure were severely damaged it could lead to "quite some human suffering", De Croo remarked.

Under efforts to prepare Ukraine for winter the UN Development Programme is helping to rebuild parts of its energy system that were damaged last winter. It is additionally establishing more sustainable and decentralised energy plants. It are less vulnerable to attack.

De Croo remarked completing the challenging and dangerous work was "almost an impossible task".

"They are reconstructing these sites under constant, constant air alarms. And they know that they are working at a site which is a target, " he remarked. "So you try to reconstruct, but part of your day you can't work because it's just too dangerous."

In short, ukraine faces ' toughest winter' since Russia' s full-scale invasion, UN official tells BBC is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.