Weather forecasters predict relatively mild winter in Ukraine

Weather forecasters in Ukraine on Thursday predicted a milder winter than usual, offering a glimmer of hope to Ukrainians facing power outages following Russian attacks on energy facilities.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said this week that air strikes had destroyed almost a third of Ukraine's power stations since Oct. 10, and the country is facing power outages as repair work is done.

Winters can be long and hard in Ukraine, but the state-run weather forecasting centre suggested temperatures may be slightly higher than average this winter.

"The average temperature of the winter period is expected to be 1-2 degrees (Celsius) higher than the norm... the probability of long periods of very cold weather with a minimum temperature of minus 25-30 Celsius degrees in Ukraine is very low," it said on Facebook.

"Mostly probable short-term significant cooling lasting 1-5 days, when the minimum temperature at night will be minus 15-20 Celsius degrees," it said.

The chief executive of Ukrainian energy firm Naftogaz said that Ukraine had a significant volume of gas in storage but would need additional imports because of problems in the electricity sector.