- Most electricity has been restored in the capital after the worst outages to date
- USA: Russia tries to freeze Ukraine into submission
- Kyiv aims to restore the nuclear power plants by the end of Thursday
- “We are an unbreakable people,” says President Zelenskiy
Kyiv, Nov 24 (Reuters) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy demanded the United Nations punish Russia for airstrikes on civilian infrastructure, after a missile barrage plunged cities into freezing darkness in the worst power outages across the country.
With temperatures below freezing, authorities were working Thursday to get the lights and heat back on. Russia’s latest missile strike killed 10 people and shut down all of Ukraine’s nuclear power plants for the first time in 40 years.
Kyiv regional authorities said electricity had been restored to three-quarters of the capital by Thursday morning and water was back on in some areas. Transport returned to work in the city, with buses replacing electric trams.
Authorities expected to restart all three nuclear power plants in Ukrainian-controlled territory later in the day.
Since the beginning of October, Russia has launched a large barrage of airstrikes about once a week against energy targets in Ukraine, each time firing missiles worth hundreds of millions of dollars to knock out Ukraine’s power grid. Ukraine
Moscow acknowledges attacking basic infrastructure, saying its aim is to reduce Ukraine’s ability to fight and push it to negotiate. Kyiv says these attacks are clearly intended to harm civilians, making them a war crime.
“Today is just one day, but we received 70 missiles. This is the Russian formula for terror. All this goes against our energy infrastructure,” Zelenskiy said overnight via video link in the Council chamber of UN security. “Hospitals, schools, transportation, residential neighborhoods all suffered.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was Kyiv’s fault that Ukrainians were suffering because it refused to give in to Moscow’s demands, which he did not elaborate on. Ukraine says it will stop fighting only when all Russian forces have left.
“What is there to talk about? I think the first step should come from them. To begin with, they have to stop bombing us,” said Olena Shafinska, 27, queuing in front of a water pump in a park in the center of Kyiv. with a group of friends.
For the first time, the Russian attacks forced Kyiv to shut down the three nuclear power plants it still controls. The fourth, in territory controlled by Russia, also had to activate reserve diesel power. Nuclear officials say power outages could disrupt cooling systems and lead to a nuclear disaster.
“There is a real danger of a nuclear and radiation catastrophe from firing across the territory of Ukraine with Russian cruise and ballistic missiles,” said Petro Kotin, head of Ukraine’s nuclear operator Energoatom.
“Russia must answer for this shameful crime.”
WEAPON THE WINTER
Winter has suddenly arrived in Ukraine and temperatures were well below freezing in the capital, a city of three million people. US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said Russian President Vladimir Putin “is clearly weaponizing the winter to inflict immense suffering on the Ukrainian people.”
[1/22] Local residents stand near their building destroyed by a Russian missile attack, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, in the town of Vyshhorod, near Kyiv, Ukraine, November 24, 2022. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich
The Russian president “will try to freeze the country into submission,” he added.
There was no prospect of action by the Security Council, where Russia has a veto. Moscow’s ambassador to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, said it was against the council’s rules for Zelenskiy to appear by video and rejected what he called “reckless threats and ultimatums” by Ukraine and its supporters in the west
He blamed damage to Ukraine’s infrastructure on its air defense missiles and said the West should stop supplying them.
Ukrainian authorities said on Wednesday that three apartment blocks were hit, killing 10 people.
“Our little girl was sleeping. Two years old. She was sleeping, she covered herself. She’s alive, thank God,” said a man who gave his name as Fyodr, dragging a suitcase as he walked away from an apartment smoking affected building in Kyiv.
Also in the capital, performers and staff members of Kyiv’s National Academic Operetta Theater bid a tearful farewell to 26-year-old ballet dancer Vadym Khlupianets, who died fighting Russian troops east of Ukraine
Moscow has turned to the tactic of attacking Ukraine’s infrastructure even as Kyiv has inflicted battlefield defeats on Russian forces since September. Russia has also declared the annexation of the lands it occupies and called up hundreds of thousands of reservists.
The first winter of the war will now test whether Ukraine can continue its campaign to retake territory, or whether Russia’s commanders can keep their invasion forces supplied and find a way to halt Kyiv’s push.
Having withdrawn, Russia has a much shorter line to defend to hold on to the occupied lands, with more than a third of the front blocked by the Dnipro River.
“Ukraine will slowly grow in capabilities, but continued maneuvering east of the Dnipro River and in the Russian-occupied Donbas will prove to be much tougher fighting,” tweeted Mark Hertling, a former commander of US ground forces in Europe.
“Ukraine’s morale will be tested by continued Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure … but Ukraine will persevere.”
Russia has been pressing an offensive of its own along the front line west of the Moscow-held city of Donetsk since 2014. Ukraine’s general staff said Russian forces again attempted advancing towards their main objectives, Bakhmut and Avdiivka, with limited success. .
Further south, Russian forces were digging into the eastern bank of the Dnipro, shelling areas across it, including the city of Kherson, recaptured by Ukrainian forces this month.
Reuters could not immediately verify accounts from the battlefield.
Moscow says it is conducting a “special military operation” to protect Russian speakers in what Putin calls an artificial state cut off from Russia. Ukraine and the West call the invasion an unprovoked war of aggression.
Additional reporting by Stefaniia Bern and Reuters bureaus Writing by Peter Graff, Alexandra Hudson Editing by Philippa Fletcher
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