The war in Ukraine has crossed the threshold of nine months of fighting without major changes on the battlefield, but with the Russian military repeatedly shelling Ukrainian civilian infrastructure in the dead of winter.
“We have withstood nine months of full-scale war and Russia still hasn’t found a way to break us. And it won’t,” Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky proclaimed in his evening address.
Fighting in Donbas continues to be bloodybut the news is now – since mid-October – in the massive Russian attacks against the Ukrainian energy network.
Zelensky: “We have withstood nine months of large-scale war and Russia still hasn’t found a way to break us”
Just as temperatures begin to dip below freezing, Ukrainians are running out of power, heating and internet, threatening to spark a humanitarian crisis similar to the one created by the start of the war in February.
a country in the dark
“The situation with electricity remains difficult in all regions,” Zelensky admitted.
In the Ukrainian rear the real war is being waged now emergency and repair teams substations, gas distribution plants, boilers, canals, electrical towers, telecommunications antennas and, on occasions, nuclear power plants.
Priority is given to public services, especially schools and hospitals, so homes are left in the dark and sometimes also without running water.
As reported this Friday by the state corporation Ukrenergo, 70% of the energy needs of Ukrainians were already satisfied. Although, in the case of the capital, kyiv, its mayor, Vitali Klitschkó, acknowledged that only a third of the houses have heating and half have electricity.
“They don’t know how to fight. The only thing they can do is terrorize. Or energy or artillery or missile terrorism. This is how Russia has degraded under its current leaders,” Zelensky denounced, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
humanitarian crisis
The high commissioner of the UN Human Rights Office, Volker Türk, estimated the death toll at 77 since last October 10.
In addition, civilians continue to die in such punitive operations. According to local authorities, seven people were killed in shelling in the southern region of Kherson, whose capital was recently liberated by kyiv. “That terror started right after the Russian army had to flee from Kherson. It is the revenge of the losers,” Zelensky said.
The high commissioner of the UN Human Rights Office, Volker Türk, estimated today in 77 dead since last October 10including a girl and a two-day-old baby in an attack this week on a hospital in the Zaporizhia region.
“Millions are being sentenced to horrible living conditions and extremely hard due to these attacks,” he said, recalling that, according to humanitarian law, each target attacked must include a specific and direct military advantage.
In turn, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported today that it has verified attacks against 703 medical infrastructures, vehicles, supplies, medical personnel and patientsin which a hundred people would have died.
resist winter
With a view to winter, in addition to weapons, Ukraine urgently needs electric generators, assistance that the European Parliament (EP) has promised to finance and organize, according to the Ukrainian president.
With a view to winter, in addition to weapons, Ukraine urgently needs electric generators
Indeed, the British Foreign Secretary, James Cleverleypromised Zelenskiy in kyiv today that London will provide “crucial practical support” to Ukraine to weather the coming months.
Cleverly promised that his country will allocate another 3 million pounds (3.4 million euros) to the so-called Alliance Fund for a Resilient Ukraine, aimed at rebuilding “vital” infrastructure damaged by the Russian attacks.
London will provide another 35 emergency vehicles, including 24 ambulances and 6 armored vehicles.
The wife of the Ukrainian president, Olena Zelenska, assured that Ukraine will “resist” a winter of blackouts and cold
Meanwhile, the NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, assured this Friday that Ukraine is facing “a horrible start” to winter due to the brutality of the Russian attacks. “The intentional attack on civilian infrastructure and civilians is a war crime,” she said.
The wife of the Ukrainian president, Olena Zelenska, assured the BBC that Ukraine will “resist” a winter of blackouts and cold generated by Russian missiles and pointed out that “without victory, there can be no peace.”
“We are ready to withstand this. We have suffered so many terrible challenges, we have seen so many casualties, so much destruction, that blackouts are not the worst thing that happens to us,” he said.
The first lady referred to a recent poll that revealed that 90% of Ukrainians believe that the country can hold out in the current conditions for another “two or three years” if there is a real prospect of joining the European Union (EU).” as equals”.
