Ukrainians On Ventilators Gasp For Oxygen As Power Cuts Become The Norm

On the night of December 17, the outage lasted more than 10 hours, longer than usual.

Valentyn Mozgovy cannot breathe on his own, and keeping his ventilator powered during Ukraine's blackouts has become a matter of life or death.

Regular power outages caused by Russian missile strikes have terrified tens of thousands of Ukrainians who rely on electricity to keep medical equipment running.

Mozgovy suffers from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a degenerative neurological condition that has left him paralysed and unable to breathe without assistance.

"He is alive, you see. That means I figured it out," his wife, Lyudmyla Mozgova, told AFP in their apartment in the capital Kyiv.