Ukraine yesterday struggled to repair its battered power and water services after Russia targeted the electricity grid with dozens of cruise missiles amid plunging temperatures.
The Ukrainian energy system is on the brink of collapse and millions have been subjected to emergency blackouts for weeks due to systematic Russian bombardments of the grid.
The bombardments caused blackouts across the war-torn nation and in neighboring Moldova, in attacks Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told the UN were “an obvious crime against humanity.”
Photo: REUTERS
“When we have the temperature below zero [degrees Celsius], and scores of millions of people without energy supplies, without heating, without water, this is an obvious crime against humanity,” he told the UN Security Council via videoconference.
The WHO said the country’s priority this winter would be “survival.”
The Ukrainian military said Russian forces had fired about 70 cruise missiles at targets across the country on Wednesday and also deployed attack drones.
Photo: REUTERS
The strikes piled pressure on the Ukrainian grid, disrupting power supplies in southern and eastern regions, with water and electricity cuts in the capital, Kyiv.
The strikes killed several people and disconnected three nuclear power stations, officials said.
Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba said the latest Russian salvo was a response to a decision by the European Parliament to recognize Russia as a “state sponsor of terrorism” over its nine-month invasion of Ukraine, and its call for the 27-nation EU to follow.
The resolution approved by EU lawmakers said the “deliberate attacks and atrocities carried out by the Russian Federation against the civilian population of Ukraine ... and other serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law amount to acts of terror.”
Ukraine praised the decision, with Zelenskiy calling for Russia to be “held accountable in order to end its long-standing policy of terrorism in Ukraine and across the globe.”
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko wrote on Telegram that three people were killed in the attacks in the capital, including a 17-year-old girl, while 11 residents were injured.
Agence France-Presse reporters at the scene of one strike in Kyiv saw the burned remains of two vehicle and the bodies of two people killed in the blast.
Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said half of the western city was without electricity.
Neighboring Moldova said it was suffering massive blackouts caused by the missile barrage and its EU-friendly president, Maia Sandu, accused Russia of leaving her country “in the dark.”
Ukraine’s nuclear energy operator Energoatom said Wednesday’s strikes had disconnected all three nuclear power plants still under Ukrainian control from the grid and forced the plant in Zaporizhzhia — controlled by Russian forces — to be powered by backup generators.
Near Zaporizhzhia earlier on Wednesday, Russian strikes smashed into a hospital in the city of Vilniansk, killing a newborn in the maternity ward.
Emergency services said a woman and doctor who were also in the building had survived, as official footage showed workers wearing protective helmets trying to dig out a man trapped waist-deep in rubble.
“Grief fills our hearts,” Kyiv-appointed Zaporizhzhia Governor Oleksandr Starukh said in the wake of the attack.
Vilniansk is about 45km from the front line, and was targeted in Russian strikes last week that killed 10 people.
Moscow last month claimed to have annexed Zaporizhzhia alongside three other Ukraine regions despite not having full control of the territory.
On a visit to Armenia on Wednesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia had faith in the “success” of its offensive in Ukraine.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday declared emergency martial law, accusing the opposition of being “anti-state forces intent on overthrowing the regime” amid parliamentary wrangling over a budget bill. “To safeguard a liberal South Korea from the threats posed by North Korea’s communist forces and to eliminate anti-state elements plundering people’s freedom and happiness, I hereby declare emergency martial law,” Yoon said in a live televised address to the nation. “With no regard for the livelihoods of the people, the opposition party has paralysed governance solely for the sake of impeachments, special investigations, and shielding their leader from justice,” he
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