The snows may not have arrived in Kherson yet, but they certainly have arrived here in Kyiv over the weekend and it is getting bitterly cold.

The authorities here say they have the situation under control, they're staggering power outages in different neighbourhoods and giving people warning.

There is a well-publicised schedule of periods of when a neighbourhood will have its power cut.

But these can have a cascading effect, particularly in tower blocks where the lifts are knocked out and it's impossible to get water pumped up to the higher floors - and it's causing real problems.

Street lights are turned off to save energy in Kyiv

It's also causing problems in Ukraine’s periphery.

Coming across the border from Poland last night we were talking to volunteers who said that after the wave of Russian attacks which followed the attack on the Kerch bridge, there was a big noticeable uptick in refugees leaving Ukraine trying to get into Poland.

And again after Russia lost control of Kherson there was another noticeable rise in refugees leaving the country because of the retaliation and revenge by the Russian government.

So all of this is putting pressure not only on the Ukrainian authorities here, but also on countries in Europe who are trying to manage the refugee situation.

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On the question of negotiations - it's a fundamental part of the negotiation process that it is guided by what happens on the battlefield.

And clearly, because of the successes that the Ukrainian government has had since August, in Kharkiv and in then capturing Kherson, they are determined publicly and certainly rhetorically to keep going until they say they want to liberate all of Ukrainian territory, including Crimea.

That is going to get extremely difficult as we get into the winter months. It's pretty much understood that the fighting will grind to a much more low level, but it is still an attritional and gruelling form of warfare and we may be looking ahead to next spring before the Ukrainians feel they are in a position to and push ahead with further and deeper offensives.

Of course, both sides are feeling the attritional effects of grinding through ammunition and artillery shells and both sides have to replete their arsenals.

That's not easy for Russia because of the sanctions and it's not easy for the West either in keeping the Ukrainian army supplied.

Attacks on Ukraine's energy grid and power cuts across the country are posing a threat to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

The nuclear power plant has been at the heart of the conflict between Russian and Ukrainian forces in recent months.

It is the biggest nuclear facility in Europe and it provides about 20% of Ukraine’s electricity.

The facility’s six water-moderated reactors have been shut down due to shelling in recent weeks.

This is causing worry as the nuclear fuel at the core of these reactors needs to be kept cool.

The pumps for the cooling process are electric and some of the high-voltage lines going into the plant have been struck by the shelling, so diesel generators are being used to cool down the reactors. This is causing a precarious situation.

The UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency is worried if the generators fail, then the nuclear fuel can overheat and could cause a meltdown.

Russia is currently using the plant and is trying to divert electricity and power to the Crimea grid.