Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Russia of deliberately targeting the civilian population and energy infrastructure during the intense winter phase.
Both Ukraine and Russia have targeted each other’s civilian infrastructure, particularly energy facilities, to inflict maximum damage and increase pressure ahead of the next round of negotiations set to take place in the United States. Ukraine, earlier last week, launched successive drone and missile strikes on Russia, prompting severe retaliation from Moscow, which fired hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles at Ukraine.
“Ukraine is suffering through power outages at this moment due to Russian strikes,” Zelenskyy said.
In the capital Kyiv, daytime highs have stood around minus 10 degrees Celsius for the past several days.
Russian forces launched a series of retaliatory attacks on Ukraine through Friday morning, triggering massive power outages in the city.
In a social media post on Sunday, Zelenskyy wrote that Russia “deliberately waited for freezing weather to make things worse for our people.” He added that the action is “deliberate, cynical Russian terror specifically against civilians.”
He went on to say that “our internal resilience and the work to strengthen our defence are especially important,” urging Ukrainians to remain steadfast. Russia on Friday launched its deadly Oreshnik missile targeting Ukraine’s power generation plant in Lviv, while other missiles reportedly struck residential apartments.
In a statement on Friday, the leaders of Britain, France, and Germany said Russia’s use of the missile was “escalatory and unacceptable,” according to the UK government’s spokesperson.
