Russia's war on Ukraine latest news: U.S. to help Ukraine restore electricity

* Nuclear disarmament talks between Russia and the United States set to take place this week have been postponed, Russia's foreign ministry and the U.S. Embassy said. POWER SUPPLY * President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned Ukrainians to expect another brutal week of cold and darkness, predicting that Russia's attacks on infrastructure would not stop until it runs out of missiles. * Kyiv plans to put up Christmas trees, without lights, throughout the battered city in a defiant display of holiday spirit as the area's millions of residents suffer through blackouts, officials said.

The United States will announce new aid on Tuesday to help Ukraine restore electricity as its people face another week of brutal cold and darkness after Russian strikes on its power grid caused rolling blackouts. DIPLOMACY

* A communications line created between the militaries of the United States and Russia at the beginning of Russia's war against Ukraine has been used only once, a U.S. official told Reuters. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the United States initiated a call through the "deconfliction" line to communicate its concerns about Russian military operations near critical infrastructure in Ukraine. * Nuclear disarmament talks between Russia and the United States set to take place this week have been postponed, Russia's foreign ministry and the U.S. Embassy said.

POWER SUPPLY * President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned Ukrainians to expect another brutal week of cold and darkness, predicting that Russia's attacks on infrastructure would not stop until it runs out of missiles.

* Kyiv plans to put up Christmas trees, without lights, throughout the battered city in a defiant display of holiday spirit as the area's millions of residents suffer through blackouts, officials said. * Ukrainian energy company Naftogaz has asked the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to help with additional natural gas volumes for the heating season, Oleksiy Chernyshov, the company's chief executive said.

BATTLEFIELD * Russian forces shelled 30 settlements in Ukraine's southern Kherson region 258 times in the past week, Zelenskiy said.

* In an evening update on Monday, Ukraine's military said Russia kept up heavy shelling of key targets Bakhmut and Avdiivka in Donetsk province, and to the north bombarded Kupiansk and Lyman, both recaptured recently by Kyiv. * The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine is still under Russian control and will remain so, the Kremlin said, after a Ukrainian official suggested Russian forces were preparing to leave.

* Reuters could not verify the battlefield reports. * The Pentagon is considering a Boeing proposal to supply Ukraine with cheap, small precision bombs fitted onto abundantly available rockets, allowing Kyiv to strike far behind Russian lines as the West struggles to meet demand for more arms.

QUOTE "I went outside with my child, and my mother was lying in the building entrance, face down, covered in blood. And my father was sitting by her side, saying he was going to die," Liliia Khrystenko, 38, told Reuters, describing a recent Russian attack on the southern city of Kherson. 

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