Russian attacks plunge Ukraine, parts of Moldova into darkness
A barrage of Russian attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure has knocked out power across large areas of the war-torn country as well as parts of neighbouring Moldova, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy calling the attacks a “crime against humanity”, Qazet.az reports.
“When we have the temperature below zero and scores of millions of people without energy supplies, without heating, without water, this is an obvious crime against humanity,” Zelenskyy told an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday via video link.
In the capital Kyiv, where the water supply was also cut, at least six civilians were killed and nine wounded, authorities said, when a rocket hit a two-storey building on Wednesday.
Multiple regions reported attacks in quick succession as Moscow pursues its campaign to debilitate Ukraine’s essential services ahead of the looming winter.
United States Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said Russian President Vladimir Putin was “clearly weaponising winter to inflict immense suffering on the Ukrainian people”.
The Russian president “will try to freeze the country into submission”, she added.
Russia’s UN Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya responded by complaining that it was against council rules for Zelenskyy to appear via video and rejected what he called “reckless threats and ultimatums” by Ukraine and its supporters in the West.
Before the latest wave of attacks, Zelenskyy said Russian strikes had already damaged about half of Ukraine’s infrastructure.
Ukrainian officials say they believe Putin is hoping the misery of unheated and unlit homes in the cold of winter will turn public opinion against continuing to fight Russia’s offensive, but they say it is having the opposite effect and is strengthening Ukrainian resolve.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said Wednesday that “one of the capital’s infrastructure facilities has been hit” and there were “several more explosions in different districts” of the city.