Shivering in her apartment after Russian strikes knocked out the heating, 91-year-old Lidia Teleschuk said she couldn¡¯t remember a winter this harsh since World War II.

Russia has this month stepped up its strikes against Ukraine¡¯s power and heating infrastructure, plunging Kyiv residents into darkness and cold as temperatures dropped as low as minus 20 degrees Celsius.

¡°In 1942, it was even worse,¡± Teleschuk said.