Kyiv, Ukraine – A heavy Russian Geran drone struck a fast-moving train in northern Ukraine on January 27, killing five, wounding two and starting a fire that disfigured the railway carriage.

Such an attack was impossible back in 2022, when Russia started dispatching roaring swarms of Shaheds, the Geran-2’s Iranian prototypes.

Ukrainian servicemen ridiculed them for their slow speed and low effectiveness – and shot them down with their assault rifles and machineguns.

But the Geran kamikaze drones have undergone countless modifications, becoming faster and deadlier – and some were equipped with Starlink satellite internet terminals.

The terminals made them immune to Ukrainian jamming and even allowed their Russian operators to navigate their movement in real time.

Western sanctions prohibit the import of the notebook-sized terminals operated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX company to Russia.

But Moscow has allegedly smuggled thousands of them via ex-Soviet republics and the Middle East, notably Dubai, using falsified documents and activation in nations where the use of Starlink is legal, according to Russian war correspondents and media reports.

Russian forces were able to counter the use of Starlink by Ukrainian forces as the terminals linked to SpaceX’s satellite armada orbiting the Earth allowed faster communication and data exchange, as well as greater precision.

In early February, SpaceX blocked the use of every Starlink geolocated on Ukrainian territory, including the ones used by Ukrainian forces.

Only after a verification and inclusion into “white lists” that are updated every 24 hours can they be back online.

But any terminal will be shut down if moving faster than 90km/h (56mph) to prevent drone attacks.

“Looks like the steps we took to stop the unauthorized use of Starlink by Russia have worked,” Musk wrote on X on February 1.

The step is ascribed to Ukraine’s new defence minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, a 35-year-old who had served as the minister of digital transformation. He introduced dozens of innovations that simplified bureaucracy and business, according to a four-star general.

“Fedorov managed to sort it out with Musk – somehow, because we couldn’t do it earlier,” Lieutenant General Ihor Romanenko, a former deputy head of Ukrainian armed forces, told Al Jazeera.

He said the shut-off “significantly lowered” the effectiveness of Russia’s drone attacks and disrupted the communication of small groups of Russian soldiers trying to infiltrate Ukrainian positions.

The effect was so devastating that it made Russian forces “howl” with despair, said Andriy Pronin, one of the pioneers of military drone use in Ukraine.

“They’re like blind kittens now,” he told Al Jazeera.

Russian servicemen in places like the contested eastern town of Kupiansk are now “deprived of any way of getting in touch with mainland”, one of them complained on Telegram on February 4.

Other servicemen and war correspondents decried the shortsightedness of Russian generals who built communications around Starlink and did not create an alternative based on Russian technologies and devices.

However, the shutdown affected Ukrainian users of Starlink that were not supplied to the Defence Ministry but were procured by civilians and charities.

“The communications were down for two days until we figured out the white list procedure,” Kyrylo, a serviceman in the northern Kharkiv region, told Al Jazeera. He withheld his last name in accordance with the wartime protocol.

The effect, however, is short-term and is unlikely to turn the tables in the conflict that is about to enter another year.

“It’s not a panacea, it’s not like we’re winning the war,” Pronin said. “It will be hard [for Russians], but they will restore their communications.”

According to Romanenko, “it’ll take them several weeks to switch to older” communication devices such as radio, wi-fi, fibre optic or mobile phone internet.

US, UK officials call for Jimmy Lai’s release on ‘humanitarian’ grounds due to his age and health.

Hong Kong’s Chief Executive John Lee has praised the sentencing of pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai to 20 years in prison, saying he had committed “numerous heinous crimes, and his evil deeds were beyond measure”.

Lee’s condemnation on Tuesday of the former Apple Daily newspaper owner came as officials in the United States, the United Kingdom and several other countries, as well as the United Nations, said the jailing of Lai was “unjust” and that the 78-year-old should be freed on humanitarian grounds.

“This verdict needs to be promptly quashed as incompatible with international law,” UN Human Rights Commissioner Volker Turk said.

The Hong Kong chief executive said Lai’s newspaper had “poisoned” Hong Kong citizens and encouraged them to break the law and become radical and violent, during months of antigovernment demonstrations in 2019.

“The severe sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment imposed on him manifests that the rule of law is upheld and justice is done, and also brings great relief to all,” Lee said.

Lai was sentenced on Monday alongside eight other defendants, including six former Apple Daily employees, who received prison terms ranging from six years and three months to 10 years.

His sentence was the harshest yet to be handed down in Hong Kong since Beijing imposed national security legislation on the semi-autonomous city in 2020.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the sentence as an “unjust and tragic conclusion” to Lai’s case.

“It shows the world that Beijing will go to extraordinary lengths to silence those who advocate fundamental freedoms in Hong Kong,” he said in a statement shared on X.

Rubio and UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper called for Hong Kong to release Lai, a dual UK and Hong Kong citizen, on humanitarian grounds.

“For the 78-year-old, this is tantamount to a life sentence. I remain deeply concerned for Mr Lai’s health, and I again call on the Hong Kong authorities to end his appalling ordeal and release him on humanitarian grounds, so that he may be reunited with his family,” Cooper said.

‘Anti-China agitators’

Lai was found guilty in December of two counts of colluding with foreign forces – a national security charge – and one count of sedition for supporting the protests and allegedly lobbying the US to sanction Hong Kong leaders following a crackdown on the protests.

Before his arrest, Lai was known as a longtime critic of China’s Communist Party and a strong supporter of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement.

His son Sebastian told the BBC this week that a 20-year prison term was tantamount to a “death sentence” given his father’s age and deteriorating health.

“I do hope the government does more in freeing my father,” he said, referring to the British government.

UK opposition leaders, including Conservative Party Shadow Foreign Secretary Priti Patel, have criticised Prime Minister Keir Starmer for not doing enough to help Lai during his trip to Beijing in January.

“The Prime Minister Keir Starmer and the Labour Government should be ashamed of themselves for not securing the release of Jimmy,” Patel wrote on X.

Patel also described Starmer as “spineless” for simultaneously approving China’s controversial plan to build a mega embassy and alleged “spy hub” in central London.

Despite the global criticism, China has maintained that national security laws are necessary to “safeguard” Hong Kong. China’s powerful State Council referred to Lai’s trial in a new report released on Tuesday about Hong Kong’s national security situation.

The report said “anti-China agitators” – like Lai – “who sought to destabilise Hong Kong have been convicted and put in jail in accordance with the law”.

As Israel faces mounting criticism over new measures to tighten its control of the occupied West Bank, Al Jazeera’s Gabriel Elizondo asked the UN Secretary-General’s spokesman what he plans to do to deter Israel.

Kyiv, Ukraine – No one was hurt when the first Russian drone hit Taira Sluisarenko’s apartment building in eastern Kyiv on the night after her 16th birthday.

“I was sitting on the bathroom floor and right away felt [the explosion] shook us more than usual,” shattering windows and outer walls of apartments several storeys above hers, she told Al Jazeera about the January 9 attack.

“I began reconsidering my decision not to move to Poland,” where her aunt, cousin and sister live, she said. “But I felt no fear.”

Russian forces used a double-tap tactic of sending a second drone to the same location. Thirty minutes later, a blast outside the building killed Serhiy Smolyak, a 56-year-old emergency medic, and wounded his colleagues.

Russia launched 242 drones and 36 missiles that night, including an Oreshnik ballistic missile that Russian President Vladimir Putin calls “meteor-like”. It flies at 13,000 kilometres per hour (8,077 miles per hour) and cannot be intercepted by advanced Western air defence systems.

The assault killed four people and wounded dozens overall and destroyed energy infrastructure.

Dozens of similar attacks since 2022 have deprived millions of people throughout Ukraine of heat, power and running water as winter temperatures have dropped far below minus 10 degrees Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit), covering roads and the Dnipro, Europe’s fifth largest river, with thick ice.

Sluisarenko’s apartment building is new and advanced with insulated walls and solar panels that help power water pumping in the central heating system.

Its residents are affluent enough to pitch in for a huge, gas-guzzling generator that keeps the elevators running.

But all of that still was not enough to keep the apartments warm, and since the attack, Sluisarenko has been sleeping under two warm blankets with tights and four pairs of socks on.

Yet, she’s surviving.

‘White deaths’

At least 10 “white deaths” from hypothermia have been reported by emergency and health officials this year in two Ukrainian regions – Ternopil and Rivne, where infrastructure is far less damaged than in Kyiv or eastern and southern regions that are closer to Russia.

The pre-war population of Ternopil and Rivne was 2.1 million, or about 5 percent of Ukraine’s pre-war population of 42 million.

There are no overall statistics of “white deaths” for all of Ukraine because officials summarise such deaths only after the winter.

But a rough extrapolation – considering that about 6 million people have fled Ukraine since 2022 and almost 6 million live in Russia-occupied regions – suggests that the number of “white deaths” may be close to 200.

Descriptions of “white deaths” are gruesome with no names and few details.

A 41-year-old man died of “general hypothermia of the body” on Sunday in the town of Ostroh in Rivne, said the State Emergency Service of Ukraine.

It and the Ministry of Health did not immediately respond to Al Jazeera’s requests for comment.

A United Nations official warned that children are especially vulnerable to the cold, as has been seen in Gaza.

“Newborns and infants lose body heat rapidly and are at heightened risk of hypothermia and respiratory illness, conditions that can quickly become life-threatening without adequate warmth and medical care,” Munir Mammadzade, UNICEF country representative in Ukraine, said in a statement on January 16.

Russia’s campaign to freeze Ukraine into submission has intensified this winter, triggering many more health problems.

At least 18 deaths from carbon monoxide caused by indoor burning of wood and coal have been recently reported along with hundreds of cases of frostbite and thousands of instances of pneumonia and acute colds.

Cardiovascular diseases have skyrocketed along with worsening mental health as millions lie awake at night in frozen apartments hearing the buzzing of drones, whooshing of missiles and heavy thuds of air defences above them.

‘We do everything to keep people warm’

The struggle for warmth is a 24/7 ordeal.

“Without power, we’re like in a coffin,” Yelena Hodarenko, who struggles to survive in the northern Kyiv district of Troeshchina, told Al Jazeera as she showed a thin crust of ice on her kitchen floor next to the outer wall.

Her 12-storey apartment building has had no central heating since mid-January after ice burst the pipes. The power supply resumes for one to two hours a day, always unexpectedly, and after getting stuck in the elevator three times, Hodarenko prefers to take the stairs to her apartment on the eighth floor.

She fumbles her way in icy darkness past graffiti-covered concrete walls with a faint cellphone torchlight, greeting neighbours scurrying up and down the stairs.

Her biggest worry is her pallid-faced husband, Mikyailo, bedridden after three surgeries. Every time the power is back on, she rushes to heat up water and pour it in plastic bottles that keep his feet warm under five blankets.

Her neighbourhood looks postapocalyptically deserted after many residents left for their relatives’ and friends’ countryside houses that rely on firewood and coal for warmth.

They followed the call of Kyiv’s mayor.

On January 22, Vitali Klitschko said 600,000 people had already left the city of 3 million and urged others who have “options” to stay in the countryside to leave too.

“I’m telling you honestly, the situation is complicated and now may not be the most complicated time,” he said at the time.

Some military units have sent their medics and rescue teams to pitch army tents with simple wood stoves where dozens of civilians sleep on bunk beds.

“We do everything to keep people warm,” Tymofei, a military medic with the 2nd Special Medical Battalion told Al Jazeera, withholding his last name in accordance with wartime regulations.

His colleagues were warming up a giant cauldron of plov, a hearty Central Asian dish of rice, meat and carrots, to be distributed free of charge.