Ukrainians suffer in cold, darkness as president implores U.N. to punish Russia - Reuters

KYIV, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy demanded the United Nations punish Russia for air strikes on civilian infrastructure, after a missile barrage plunged cities into freezing darkness in the worst nationwide power outages yet.

Russia's latest missile barrage killed 10 people and shut down all of Ukraine's nuclear power plants for the first time in 40 years.

Regional authorities in Kyiv said power had been restored to three quarters of the capital by Thursday morning and water was working again in some areas.

Since early October, Russia has launched huge barrages of air strikes around once a week at energy targets across Ukraine, each time firing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of missiles to knock out Ukraine's power grid.

Ukraine says it will only stop fighting when all Russian forces have left?

For the first time, the Russian attacks forced Kyiv to switch off the three nuclear power plants it still controls.

"There is a real danger of a nuclear and radiation catastrophe being caused by firing on the entire territory of Ukraine with Russian cruise and ballistic missiles," Petro Kotin, head of Ukraine's nuclear operator Energoatom said.

[1/22] Local residents stand near their building destroyed by a Russian missile attack, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, in the town of Vyshhorod, near Kyiv, Ukraine November 24, 2022.

ambassador, Vasily Nebenzya, said it was against council rules for Zelenskiy to appear via video, and rejected what he called "reckless threats and ultimatums" by Ukraine and its supporters in the West.

He blamed damage to Ukraine's infrastructure on its air defence missiles and said the West should stop supplying them.

Also in the capital, performers and staff members of the Kyiv National Academic Operetta Theater tearfully bid farewell to 26-year-old ballet dancer Vadym Khlupianets who was killed fighting Russian troops in eastern Ukraine.

Moscow has shifted to the tactic of striking Ukraine's infrastructure even as Kyiv has inflicted battlefield defeats on Russian forces since September.

Ukraine's general staff said Russian forces tried again to advance on their main targets, Bakhmut and Avdiivka, with only limited success.