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

* 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.

Air raid sirens wailed across Ukraine for the first time this week, as the United States and NATO allies unveiled new pledges of money and equipment to help restore power and heat knocked out by Moscow's missile and drone strikes. DIPLOMACY

* Moscow said it had "no other choice" but to cancel talks with the United States over inspections under the "New START" nuclear weapons control treaty, Russian state-run news agencies reported. * 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.

* NATO allies will ramp up aid for Ukraine as Russian President Vladimir Putin was using winter as a weapon of war because his forces are failing on the battlefield, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said. * Lithuanian foreign minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said before a NATO foreign ministers meeting in Bucharest that NATO was not running low on tanks it could send to Ukraine.

POWER SUPPLY * Ukraine was still struggling to restore full power nearly a week after a wave of Russian missile strikes that damaged energy facilities across the country.

* 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.

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.