Russia-Ukraine War: The Russian invasion of Ukraine has been going on for nine months, and does not seem to be coming to an end, as the Russians have stepped up their attack on civilian sites in the country. More than six million Ukrainian families suffer from permanent power outages, and as a result, also from a lack of heating means. NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenbergwarned this evening (Monday) and stated that “Russia will continue to attack the electricity grid, and will also move to the gas infrastructure and other basic civil services.”
Western analysts assess: “Putin is discouraged, his red lines have changed”
Live: Russian TV calls to “freeze the Ukrainians for the winter”
Stoltenberg also added that “Russian President Putin is now trying to use winter as a weapon in the war against Ukraine.” This, a few hours after the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskystated that millions of Ukrainians live in absolute poverty.
In the meantime, officials in the Ukrainian army once again referred to the conflict in the area of the Zaporizhia nuclear site, saying that “Moscow forbade Ukrainian technicians, who refused to sign work contracts with the Russian energy company, from entering the station, which the Russian army occupied last March.” According to them, “according to the information we have, as of today, the Russians have forbidden workers from entering the station area.”
The President of Ukraine commented on this and said that the residents of Kyiv suffer the most from the power outages. According to him, “Some residents of the capital are left without electricity or water for 20 hours and sometimes even 30.” He explained that “the electrical engineers are continuing the attempts to repair the electrical systems, and the limitations on the supply of electricity remain in 15 different districts of the country, including the capital.” Meteorologists have already predicted heavy snow in the capital, starting today, with temperatures dropping below zero. This, when millions of people are around, still without heating.
As a reminder, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense recently published how its fighters are preparing to fight in the harsh winter in the region. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry stated that “the fighters take care of the shelters, which are located underground, so that they are comfortable and safe for the continuation of the fighting.” Alongside the published photos, they also stated that “this is what the temporary shelters look like, here the soldiers on the battlefield can sleep, warm themselves and cook” this, against the background of the fear that the temperatures this coming winter will reach minus 30 degrees Celsius.