Joanna Kakissis

It's so cold indoors in some homes that windows are icing up.

People can see their breath.

And children are vulnerable.

We met one mom, Inessa Rostysvinska.

She was inside a bus that had been turned into a mobile shelter.

It's a place where people can keep warm.

They can warm up.

They can charge their phones.

She sipped hot tea as her two daughters, who are five and two, were eating steaming bowls of instant ramen.

She says she goes to cafes to fill up thermoses with hot water, which she then pours into hot water bottles at home to help warm the beds at night.

Well, Scott, you know, Ukrainian energy workers are remarkably efficient at getting power plants and substations operating quickly again, even after repeated attacks.

But it's a Sisyphean task.

They rebuild them and then there are more strikes.

Also, Kiev is filled with these enormous apartment buildings.

They're like 25, 30 stories high.

They're heated through a system that pumps hot water through pipes.

And because Russian attacks have damaged the system during sub-zero temperatures, the water is frozen in some of these pipes and burst them.

So these will have to be fixed, too.

I spoke with Ukrainian energy expert Oleksandr Harchenko, who said only about a quarter of the electricity needed is available to Kyiv right now.

And he said he believes the Russian attacks aim to make Kyiv and other cities unlivable.