New Delhi, Oct. 17 -- Blackouts tighten their grip on Kyiv as a Kharkiv hospital reels, aid routes burn in Kherson, and allies argue over drones, shells, and the long winter ahead.

KYIV - Before dawn on Wednesday, the war's rhythms converged into a now-familiar pattern across Ukraine: glide-bombs hammered Kharkiv, families near Kupiansk were told to pack and leave, and rolling outages flickered through the capital as a strained grid tried to keep trains moving and stairwells lit. On Day 1,329, the fighting and the home-front burdens overlapped in ways that revealed the conflict's current shape, a contest of attrition at the front and a contest of endurance in the cities behind it.

In Kharkiv, local officials said a wave of drones and he...