Russia's war on Ukraine latest news: Shelters promised as bleak winter looms

Moscow is pressing an offensive of its own along a stretch of frontline west of the city of Donetsk, held by its proxies since 2014. * "The enemy does not stop shelling the positions of our troops and settlements near the contact line (in the Donetsk region)," the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said.

Ukraine's government promised to

create shelters to provide heat and water and encouraged citizens to conserve energy as a harsh winter loomed amid relentless Russian strikes that have left its power structure in tatters.

POWER SUPPLIES * The head of Ukraine's national power grid operator said the damage dealt to power-generating facilities by Russian missile attacks was "colossal" but he dismissed the need to evacuate civilians.

* Special "invincibility centres"

will be set up around Ukraine to provide electricity, heat, water, internet, mobile phone connections and pharmacy service, free of charge and around the clock, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said. * The Kremlin said no substantive progress had been made towards creating a security zone around Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine.

* There were no immediate nuclear safety or security concerns at the Russian-held reactor complex despite shelling at the weekend that caused widespread damage, the U.N. atomic watchdog said after its experts toured the site. * Moscow and Kyiv blame each other for repeated shelling in the immediate area of the facility.

CONFLICT * Battles continued to rage in the east, where Russia has sent some of the forces it moved following its withdrawal from around the city of Kherson in the south. Moscow is pressing an offensive of its own along a stretch of frontline west of the city of Donetsk, held by its proxies since 2014.

* "The enemy does not stop shelling the positions of our troops and settlements near the contact line (in the Donetsk region)," the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said. * Russian air defences repelled two drone attacks in Crimea, annexed from Ukraine in 2014, including one targeting a thermal power station near Sevastopol, the home port of Russia's Black Sea fleet, the regional governor said.

* Russian shelling hit a humanitarian aid distribution centre in Orihiv, a town in southeastern Ukraine, killing a volunteer and wounding two women, the regional governor said. * Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield accounts.

FOREIGN RESPONSE, AID * The Group of Seven nations should soon announce the price cap on Russian oil exports and the coalition will probably adjust the level a few times a year,

a senior U.S. Treasury official said .

* Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Germany must be ready for the situation in Ukraine to escalate but that his recent trip to China was worthwhile if only for spelling out the two countries' joint stance against using nuclear weapons. * Disbursement of $4.5 billion in U.S. economic aid for Ukraine will begin in the coming weeks, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said. (Compiled by Lincoln Feast)

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