A satellite image of Europe shows the extent to which Ukraine is suffering from energy blackouts, in comparison to other countries, following intense missile strikes from Russia.
The image, which indicates the night radiance of Europe from space, clearly shows the capital city of Russia, Moscow, and the neighbouring second-largest city St Petersburg, strongly lit up, with surrounding countries such as Belarus, Lithuania and Estonia also radiating a varying degree of light.
In stark contrast, Ukraine is seen mainly in darkness on the satellite image, a direct effect of the recent bombardment of missile strikes from Russia, that left tens of millions without power and water.
Strikes on Wednesday targeted critical infrastructure killing 10 and causing widespread power outages across the country, as well as more than half of neighbouring Moldova.
Ukraine’s energy minister, Herman Halushchenko, said that “the vast majority of electricity consumers were cut off”.
Nuclear power plants, including reactors at Ukraine’s Pivdennoukrainsk plant in the city of Yuzhnoukrainsk, south of Kyiv, were forced to shut down and emergency blackouts were necessary for other regions to help conserve energy and carry out urgent repairs.
More on Ukraine
Related Topics:
“In one to two days, nuclear power plants will reach their normal scheduled capacity, and we expect that it will be possible to transfer our consumers to a planned shutdown (regime) instead of emergency (blackouts),” Ukrenergo chief executive Volodymyr Kudrytskyi said on Ukrainian TV on Friday.
In a recent update, Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said a third of houses now have heating, but half of the residents remain without electricity.
Advertisement
Authorities have been racing to return supplies to the capital, which has a population of three million, but residents have been reduced to queuing up for water or collecting it from drainpipes.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
1:06
Zelenskyy and Cleverly talks in Kyiv
Pictures from the western city of Lviv emerged on Friday showing individuals sitting by candlelight, not far from the Polish border.
Lviv mayor Andriy Sadoviy tweeted on Wednesday that the “whole city is without light” and there could also be interruptions with the water supply.
During the blackout, Ukraine’s health ministry said that nine organ transplants from posthumous donors were carried out within 30 hours.
As of Friday morning, the regional governor of Ukraine’s second-largest city Kharkiv, said that all residents had had their electricity supplies restored, but more than 100,000 in the outlying region continued to experience interruptions. Whereas in the south, authorities in the city of Mykolayiv said that running water was set to start flowing again after supplies were cut off by Russian strikes on Thursday.
In a bid to try and help Ukraine stay warm, European officials have issued monetary and physical aid.
French foreign minister Catherine Colonna said France is sending 100 high-powered generators to Ukraine whereas British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, who arrived in Kyiv on a visit, promised a £50m air-defence package to help defend against Russia’s bombardments.
Emergency vehicles including 24 ambulances, some of them armoured, are included within the package.
“Words are not enough. Words won’t keep the lights on this winter. Words won’t defend against Russian missiles,” Mr Cleverly wrote in a tweet concerning military aid.
NATO’s secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg also showed support, saying the alliance is determined to help Ukraine defend itself for “as long as it takes”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected ceasefire proposals because he says Hamas’s call for a withdrawal of all troops from Gaza and an end to the war is unacceptable.
Mr Netanyahu said agreeing to such proposals would “leave Hamas intact” and leave the possibility of another attack in future.
“Surrendering to the demands of Hamas would be a terrible defeat for the State of Israel,” he said in a video statement.
Mediated negotiations for a pause in the fighting in return for the release of hostages held by Hamas have been going on in Egypt, but a deal still appears some way off.
Hamas said in a statement on Sunday it’s “still keen to reach a comprehensive, interconnected agreement that ends the aggression, guarantees withdrawal, and achieves a serious prisoner exchange deal”.
The proposal mediators had put to Hamas set out a three-stage process for an immediate, six-week ceasefire and partial release of Israeli hostages, with some sort of Israeli pull-out in exchange.
More on Israel-hamas War
Related Topics:
More than 34,600 Palestinians have been killed and more than 77,000 have been wounded in Israel’s military operation, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
Israel has said it remains committed to a ground offensive in the southern city of Rafah, where more than a million have fled in search of safety, as it tries to wipe out Hamas.
The UN and others have warned of catastrophe if it goes ahead.
The war began in October after Hamas killed about 1,200 people, according to Israeli figures, when it launched a surprise attack.
More than 200 were abducted and many remain as hostages, while others are thought to have died.
Countries in South and Southeast Asia have been coping with a weeks-long heatwave which has seen record temperatures sweep parts of the region.
Pupils in the Philippines, India and Bangladesh have been told to stay at home and learn remotely due to a severe health risk.
Schools in Cambodia have also cut back on their hours.
Cambodia faces its hottest temperature in 170 years, according to meteorologists – as high as 43C (109F).
Bangkok in Thailand has reached 40C (104 F), but the heat index is said to have topped 50 C (122 F) due to the heat being trapped among the mass of buildings.
The United Nations Children’s Fund warned in April that the heat could put the lives of millions of children at risk and asked people who care for them to take extra precautions.
A spokesperson for UNICEF said around 243 million children were exposed to hotter and longer heatwaves.
More on Bangladesh
Related Topics:
They said the increased heat was “putting them at risk of a multitude of heat-related illnesses, and even death”.
Thirty people in Thailand have died from heatstroke in the past month, according to data from the country’s health ministry.
Advertisement
People are being advised to avoid outdoor activities and to stay hydrated.
Several towns in Myanmar were included on lists of the hottest spots globally last month, with temperatures reaching 48.2C (118F) in at least one case.
Parts of eastern India also experienced their hottest April on record.
Kerala, on India’s west coast, this week instructed all schools and colleges to close until Monday, while influencers in Bangladesh have encouraging people to plant trees in response to the record heat.
Benjamin Horton, director of the Earth Observatory of Singapore, said there were three factors for heatwaves: a naturally-occurring climate phenomenon known as El Nino, an increase in global temperatures, and human-induced climate change.
Philippine coastguard spokesman Jay Tarriela told Sky News that this week’s confrontation was the first time China had used “such aggression” against their ships.
“The metal parts and the railing were bent. The canopy was also destroyed. So this came as a surprise for us that China never hesitated to use brute force,” he said.
“It completely justifies us calling The People’s Republic of China a bully country.”
The Philippine coastguard was on a resupply mission to the Scarborough Shoal to deliver food and fuel to Philippine fishermen when they were struck.
The submerged reef lies in disputed waters. China claims sovereignty over the reef but it is much closer to the Philippines and lies within its legally recognised exclusive economic zone.
More on China
Related Topics:
The vessel Sky News was on board was the closest the coastguard had ever been to the shoal – just 600 metres away from it.
Asked if the mission to the shoal was a provocative move by the Philippine coastguard, Commodore Tarriela denied they were “poking the bear” but rather “driving the bear out of our own territory”.
Advertisement
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
4:26
Sky witnesses China-Philippine confrontation
The Philippines has been stepping up its patrols in the area under the instruction of President Bongbong Marcos, and reasserting its claim to the shoal in recent months.
It has raised the spectre of open conflict. While neither side currently wants that, there is now a greater threat of open conflict.
Asked what the end game was for the Philippines, Commodore Tarriela said their priority was to “tell the world” about China’s aggression.
He said their secondary goal was to ensure “like-minded states” also made China “fall in line and respect international law”.
Philippine government policy is not to resist using water cannon against Chinese vessels – and Commodore Tarriela insisted that policy remains in place after the confrontation.
The government also remains intensely determined to protect the waters it believes it has every right to operate in.
Follow Sky News on WhatsApp
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
“We’re not going to yield and we’re not going to surrender a square inch of our territory,” Commodore Tarriela insisted.
Beijing has called the action its own coastguard took as “necessary”.
Speaking at the Chinese foreign ministry’s daily news conference, spokesperson Lin Jian described the coastguard’s conduct as “professional, proper, and lawful”.