Ukraine live briefing: Congressional Progressive Caucus withdraws Ukraine letter; Brittney Griner appeal rejected

A Russian court rejected U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner’s appeal against her more than nine-year prison sentence on drug charges Tuesday. The WNBA star has been imprisoned since her Feb. 17 arrest on charges of entering Russia with vape cartridges containing cannabis oil, which her lawyers said were prescribed to her as part of treatment for chronic pain and other conditions.

Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.

4. From our correspondents

Russia’s methodical attacks exploit the frailty of Ukraine’s power system: Ukrainian and Western intelligence officials suspect that Russia’s relentless and highly strategic campaign of strikes against Ukraine’s energy grid is being directed by electricity specialists who know what infrastructure to target to cause maximum damage ahead of winter, The Washington Post’s Michael Birnbaum, David Stern and Emily Rauhala explain.

The effect of the strikes is lopsided, Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, the chief executive of Ukrenergo, the country’s main grid operator, told The Post. “It is much quicker and easier to launch a missile and destroy the equipment or the object than to renovate it.”

Ukraine has attempted to quickly repair damaged infrastructure, but its officials are warning that the capacity of the system to absorb shocks is being compromised with every new attack. Now, facing the possibility of rolling blackouts ahead of winter, some Ukrainians who left the country in the early days of the war and have recently returned are debating whether they may need to flee again.

Yasmeen Abutaleb, Mary Ilyushina, Michael Miller, Loveday Morris, Emily Rauhala and Jeff Stein contributed to this report.