In eastern Kyiv, stands the blackened, burnt and mangled carcass of what was until recently one of the capital's most important thermal power plants.
The Darnytska station was knocked out of action by a Russian missile strike earlier this week during the coldest period since Russia invaded four years ago -- leaving much of Kyiv without heating as temperatures dropped below -20C.
The facility "supplies heat to residential buildings, hospitals, schools -- hundreds of thousands of Kyiv residents", Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba said Wednesday.
"The strike was carried out deliberately, in a period of severe frost, when heat is a matter of basic survival for people," he added.
Ukraine has said the plant will be out of action for a considerable period of time.
Touring the site on Wednesday, AFP saw the vast extent of the damage.
Twisted metal pipes and frames lay strewn across the icy floor -- looking more like an abandoned junk yard than a piece of critical energy infrastructure.
Control panels and giant tubes hung off walls.
Brick buildings were blown partially to pieces, and white bags to collect rubble and debris dotted the site.
Half of the cooling tower's facade had been blown off, leaving a hollow metal frame.
"It was like from a dystopic movie scene," EU ambassador to Ukraine Katarina Mathernova told AFP after the visit.
Ukrainian officials say Russia's strikes amount to war crimes.
Moscow's barrages over the last month have repeatedly left half the city without heating and electricity, forcing residents to use make-shift hot-water bottles, or flock to one of the hundreds of warming tents the authorities have put up across the city.
