It's in response to Russia's widening strikes against energy facilities.

The national grid operator says the curb is limited to thursday, but more restrictions and blackouts may be needed.

With winter approaching.

For many Ukrainians though, the eight month war has already meant living without power, heat or running water, Preparing dinner in a makeshift outdoor kitchen.

nine year old Artem and his grandma arena are hurrying to get dinner ready before the setting sun plunges their home into cold and darkness.

It's really cold.

I'm sleeping in my clothes in my apartment now.

You sure Russian strikes have cut off utilities in cities and towns across Ukraine and many residents here in the region have been living without gas, water or electricity for weeks.

Now our windows were damaged.

Now we are only eating here, but sleeping in the next department because their windows are not damaged, so it's warmer there.

For many people bundling up at night and cooking outdoors is a matter of survival situations like this, no electricity, no water, no gas were cold.

You can see we're building fires, Anton lives with his mother, she's disabled and is totally dependent on her son's help.

It's really cold.

Now, if it weren't for my son, I would freeze the homes of residents living in villages like these in the Kharkiv region have been thrust into a pre industrial era with no modern comforts, authorities are trying to reassure people that electricity will be restored soon and that repairs to water and gas infrastructure will come next.

But with the war and with absolutely no certainty, people like Artem and his grandmother can only prepare for what will likely be a very harsh Ukrainian winter.

Let's get an update on the war in Ukraine with Matthias Sperling and he's in Kiev.

I believe there has been some movement as far as Ukraine's military goes tightening the noose around Russian forces around Hessen.

Could you tell us more there?

We don't have any uh confirmed uh advances yet.

But fighting is going on there and we've seen some signs in the past few days that it does not look very good for the Russian occupational troops there.

The command, the Commander for the for Ukraine, the Russian commander for Ukraine has said it's very difficult.

Um, authorities have started to, they call it evacuate people from these areas.

But there is the suspicion that these might be forced movements, that these might be deportations.

We don't have any definite information on that.

Um, and british intelligence assumes that Russia might be retreating from the city.

Of course on this would be of course a major development.

Hasan being the only administrative center that Russia has been able to capture in the beginning of the war.

I think the next days would bring a very interesting news there at the same time.

You listened in to the german Chancellor's policy speech just earlier with me, is it disappointing from where you're standing to hear that the EU does have the funds to fight its energy crisis.

That Germany does continue to support Ukraine but doesn't have anything concrete to to promise the Ukrainians in this urgent time of need.

Yeah, basically shows has reiterated what he has been saying and doing before has listed all the things he's done in the past.

There was a new specific announcement of training that that was from this week training of Ukrainian soldiers in the EU.

But overall, he's not made any announcements now.

I think the good thing is that governments have ways to talk to each other besides public speeches and that the more important information will be conveyed in bilateral speeches.

So we do not know whether anything is in the making.

But for now shows has really not announced anything.

There's really nothing new in this speech with with concerns to the support of Ukraine militarily or financially, he said that Germany will continue.

But no new announcements.

Matthias, how urgent would you say that Ukrainians need help and need more help right now, as far as things go on the battlefield?

Well, there's for one thing, there's the issue of the tanks that Ukraine wants modern western tanks to that would be used in these advances as in person as we've been talking about.

But what the past two weeks with these massive attacks on infrastructure have shown is that Ukraine needs better air defenses Germany has started delivering air defense systems to Ukraine?

The I.

R.

S.

T.

Is considered one of the most advanced systems that can hit planes, rockets, etcetera.

But with these new drones there are also other needs.

Now the drones fly lower, they're harder to catch, they can fly zigzag, they're harder to be spotted by Raiders etcetera etcetera.

And there are systems with that and their german manufacturers, factories producing these these kind of systems, there are also others Swedish, South korean Israeli we're hearing.

Um but this is certainly something that Ukraine would want from Germany and that probably talks will go on about.

We have heard nothing about it.

We've just heard from sources that this is something that Ukraine wishes to have.

Um but it might be easier for Germany to make a move on that than on the tanks, which seems to carry a very symbolic meaning for Schultz and for the SPD in the in the government german battle tanks against Russian tanks.

This is not the same case for air defenses.

So let's watch what will come out of these talks.

And also the question on how quickly these can be produced.

The german military industry hasn't been Very productive hasn't been out putting a lot in the past 30 years because demand wasn't that high.

So it might also take some time for any system to be delivered.

Dws.

Mattias Burling in Kiev following the war in Ukraine.

Thank you very much.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared martial law in the four regions of Ukraine that Moscow illegally annexed.

After a series of discredited votes just weeks ago, Kremlin backed officials in her son.

One of those regions announced it would move civilians out of the area ahead of an expected Ukrainian offensive, a step that could amount to forced deportation.

Her son was one of the first Ukrainian cities to fall to Russian forces.

Now, Ukraine is preparing to retake control these images by a Russian installed official claim to show fortifications outside the city as Russian forces are retreating from her son, Vladimir Putin blames Ukraine for defending its territory.

Key regime refused to recognize the will of the people reject any proposals for negotiation as gunfire continues, civilians die.

Putin declared martial law in the four Ukrainian regions that Moscow illegally annexed.

We are working on solving very complex large scale tasks to ensure security and protect the future of Russia to protect our people.

The move was seen as a clear response to recent military setbacks as Ukraine counter offensive advances.

The situation in the area of the special military operation can be described as tense.

The enemy is not abandoning its attempts to attack Russian forces.

Our further actions and plans regarding the city of Hassan itself will depend on the military and tactical situation.

I repeat.

It is already very difficult as of today, Putin's decree came on the day that Russian installed officials in the Ukrainian city of Kherson announced they would move civilians in anticipation of an imminent Ukrainian attack.

And we can now speak to investigative journalist and writer Catherine Belton.

She works for the Washington post and she is the author of the 2020 book Putin's People.

MS Belton, Welcome to d w what do you make of Putin declaring martial law in the annex territories?

What's his strategy here?

Um he's obviously very worried about this Ukrainian counter offensive.

It does look like they're very, very close now to taking her son and he's sort of making steps to make it clear to his population that this is Ukraine's aggression, not Russia's aggression.

And in fact, an adviser to the Defense Ministry has said that he's worried that what the Russians are doing are preparing the ground for a kind of a misinformation campaign.

He's worried that this evacuation is preparing the ground for some kind of bombing attack, which then the Russians could blame on the Ukrainians.

So there's all kinds of shuffling going on.

But really the bottom line is the loss of her son for Putin is going to be a very big blood.

Every move Putin makes is a further escalation, it seems, is he just digging a deeper and deeper hole for himself.

Or can he actually turn the tide of the war.

You know, it's very difficult.

Obviously he's already been backed into forcing the mobilization of his own people.

He'd always promised that he was never going to have to do that, it's a deeply unpopular step, which really underlines the foundations of his own presidency.

His legitimacy as president is based on his popularity and really by bringing the war home to Russians.

Now bringing it not, it's not like it was popular among Russians because they were watching almost as if they were watching a football match on Tv, but now they're risking the lives of their loved ones.

People who might not come back from the front who are going to be barely trained and equipped to fight the Ukrainians.

And and really, he never wanted to measure that he never wanted to take.

And it's already leaving him very vulnerable to criticism within his elite.

And by declaring martial law.

Putin is also in a way admitting that Russia is in fact at war.

Something that he's trying to avoid until now by labeling it a special military operation, hasn't he?

What could be the domestic repercussions of this?

You know, I think, I mean, with each stage over the past month, as Russia has lost more and more territory to the Ukrainians.

Uh, Putin is sort of preparing the ground, it seems for this recognition of what he's called a special military operation as a war.

First, you have the mobilization of the Martial law in these Ukrainian regions and are kind of a semi martial law status even within the Russian regions itself, on the borders of Ukraine, whether it's going to be stricter laws enforced an economic mobilization to support the effort.

So all the while it's creeping closer and closer to that and and really this having a big impact on his standing in the elite and among the population, there was a recent opinion poll by the Kremlin linked public opinion foundation, which found that 70% of Russians and now very, very anxious about what's going on.

He's really bringing bringing the situation home to ordinary Russians.

So I think his position is much more precarious than it's ever been in his entire presidency, who is still on board with this war.

You wrote a book called Putin's People who are Putin's people at this stage, you know, we're seeing divisions emerge within the elite around him.

Of course, there are hardliners who are pressing Putin to act ever harder against Ukraine.

I mean, he himself or sees this war that he began almost by accident because he believed that, you know, at the first sight of Russian troops, President Zelensky of Ukraine would just run away.

I don't think he ever envisioned envisaged that eight months on he'd still be fighting this war, but it has gone and he's backed into a corner.

So there are hardliners such as a guinea pig gagosian who's a longtime ally of his, from ST Petersburg who has sent his own mercenaries into fight in Ukraine, there's another hole called Nikolai Patrushev who is the head of Russia's Security Council, who was very instrumental in paving the way towards this war in Ukraine.

He told Putin just days before and now infamous Security Council meeting that the US was using Ukraine as a platform to destabilize Russia and undermine it.

And he told Putin that we are a task is to defend Russia's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Um so he's pretty much telling Putin what to do and so he's definitely a hawk.

But there are definitely those within Russia's economic elite now who are becoming more and more aghast at what's going on in the summer.

They were perhaps content to let the war rumble on in East Ukraine.

They were hoping to divert trade flows through china and India in an avoidance of Western sanctions.

But that's becoming ever more difficult and they're seeing Putin lose territory and that's not just a loss to his popularity.

It's it's kind of a loss to his standing within the elite and suddenly he is becoming fair game.

Yeah.

Putin has been going to great lengths to place the blame for Russian defeats on his defense minister, but he is the commander in chief of the Russian armed forces.

So are people starting to point fingers at him.

Well, we've seen some reporting out of the U.

S.

I think from some some colleagues who said that Putin was personally taking command of the army, that he was actually issuing orders himself trying to sort of kind of in vagal himself into the day today operations.

So at some point it is going to come back to bite him.

I mean, so far, most of the criticism has been directed at his military chiefs, but I think that's getting harder and harder to keep a lid on, especially as we see this constant retreat.

Catherine Belton, investigative journalist and writer, Pleasure speaking to you tonight.

Thank you so much.