Ukraine Says It Needs More Generators to Get through Winter 

Cars are seen on a dark avenue after critical civil infrastructure was hit by Russian missile attacks, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine December 16, 2022. (Reuters)
Cars are seen on a dark avenue after critical civil infrastructure was hit by Russian missile attacks, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine December 16, 2022. (Reuters)
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Ukraine Says It Needs More Generators to Get through Winter 

Cars are seen on a dark avenue after critical civil infrastructure was hit by Russian missile attacks, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine December 16, 2022. (Reuters)
Cars are seen on a dark avenue after critical civil infrastructure was hit by Russian missile attacks, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine December 16, 2022. (Reuters)

Ukrainian small and medium-sized businesses have imported about half a million power generators but the country needs thousands more that are bigger and stronger to get through winter, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Friday. 

Ukraine has increasingly suffered power cuts and blackouts because of Russian attacks on its energy infrastructure since October. 

"Small and medium-sized Ukrainian entrepreneurs have already imported 500,000 low power generators. But to get through the winter we will need about 17,000 big and industrial generating units," Shmyhal told a government meeting. 

"We hope to cover part of these needs with the help of our partners," he said. 

Ukraine's grid operator Ukrenergo said after the latest Russian air strikes on Friday that repair times would be longer than after previous attacks, and that it would take longer to restore power. 



Italian Journalist Cecilia Sala Released from Iran and Returning Home

This photograph taken in Pordenone on September 16, 2023, shows Italian journalist Cecilia Sala posing for a photo at the Pordenonelegge Literature Festival in Pordenone. (ANSA/AFP)
This photograph taken in Pordenone on September 16, 2023, shows Italian journalist Cecilia Sala posing for a photo at the Pordenonelegge Literature Festival in Pordenone. (ANSA/AFP)
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Italian Journalist Cecilia Sala Released from Iran and Returning Home

This photograph taken in Pordenone on September 16, 2023, shows Italian journalist Cecilia Sala posing for a photo at the Pordenonelegge Literature Festival in Pordenone. (ANSA/AFP)
This photograph taken in Pordenone on September 16, 2023, shows Italian journalist Cecilia Sala posing for a photo at the Pordenonelegge Literature Festival in Pordenone. (ANSA/AFP)

An Italian journalist detained in Iran since Dec. 19 and whose fate became intertwined with that of an Iranian engineer wanted by the United States was freed Wednesday and is heading home, Italian officials announced.

A plane carrying Cecilia Sala took off from Tehran after “intensive work on diplomatic and intelligence channels,” Premier Giorgia Meloni’s office said, adding that Meloni had informed Sala's parents of the news.

There was no immediate word from the Iranian government on the journalist’s release.

Sala, a 29-year-old reporter for the Il Foglio daily, was detained in Tehran on Dec. 19, three days after she arrived on a journalist visa. She was accused of violating the laws of the country, the official IRNA news agency said.

Italian commentators had speculated that Iran was holding Sala as a bargaining chip to ensure the release of Mohammad Abedini, who was arrested at Milan’s Malpensa airport three days before on Dec. 16, on a US warrant.

The US Justice Department accused him and another Iranian of supplying the drone technology to Iran that was used in a January 2024 attack on a US outpost near the Syrian-Jordanian border that killed three American troops.

He remains in detention in Italy.