The Russians are not making any headway on the battlefield, instead they launch a wave of attacks on the Ukrainian cities. The damage is devastating: According to Mayor Klitschko, 70 percent of households in the capital Kyiv alone are without electricity.
On the morning after the heavy Russian rocket attacks, electricity and water supplies in Kyiv are only partially restored. “70 percent of the capital has so far been without electricity,” said Mayor Vitali Klitschko on his Telegram channel. At least it was possible to supply the districts on the left bank of the Dnipro with water again. Municipal services are working flat out to repair the damage, but Kiev’s electricity supply also depends on the stability of the entire energy system in Ukraine.
Journalists reported that they had never seen the city so dark. “Exactly 17 hours without electricity, heating, water and almost no reception in my apartment,” tweeted Ukrainian journalist Denis Trubetskoy, who also writes for ntv.de. “From 7 a.m. local time it’s partly possible again.” Specifically, it looks like this: “Electricity and water are there, WiFi has been pretty ok for ten minutes, the heating hasn’t been on, mobile reception is bad or non-existent. In other parts of Kyiv it can be completely the opposite.”
According to Kiev, the Russian military shot down around 70 rockets and drones on Ukraine on Wednesday. As in the previous attacks, the targets were primarily objects in the energy sector. After the Ukrainian nuclear power plants were shut down as a result of the attack, there were power outages across the country.
The commander of the Russian troops in Ukraine, General Sergey Surovikin, had already gained notoriety during his deployment in Syria a few years earlier for attacking civilian targets in order to weaken his opponents. Following his appointment in Ukraine, attacks on the country’s critical infrastructure have become a key part of Russian warfare.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Moscow of “terrorism and murder”. “The murder of civilians, the destruction of civilian infrastructure are acts of terrorism,” he said on Twitter before the meeting. The international community must give a “resolute answer”. “When we have sub-zero temperatures and millions of people are without power, without heating and without water, it is a blatant crime against humanity,” Zelenskyy said in his video address on Wednesday.
