UN urges Russia to halt strikes on Ukraine’s energy grid as fresh barrages kill civilians, cripple heat and water supplies
The United Nations on Thursday called on Russia to stop its attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure after another nationwide barrage killed two people and plunged parts of the country into darkness and subzero cold.
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“The relentless attacks by the Russian Federation on energy infrastructure across Ukraine are depriving an already long-suffering civilian population of adequate warmth, water and electricity in an unbearably bitter and dark winter,” UN human rights chief Volker Türk said in a statement. He urged Moscow to “immediately cease these attacks,” noting temperatures have fallen as low as minus 20C.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 24 missiles and 219 drones overnight. Air defenses downed 16 missiles and 197 drones, authorities said, but critical infrastructure was again hit across multiple regions.
In Kyiv, loud blasts lit the night sky as air defenses engaged the barrage. Mayor Vitali Klitschko said two people were wounded and “nearly 2,600 more buildings in the capital have been left without heat” due to damage to critical infrastructure. More than 1,000 of the city’s roughly 12,000 apartment blocks had already lost heating after weeks of heavy strikes.
The assaults compounded a deepening humanitarian strain. Türk said millions are making do with only a few hours of electricity each day, unheated schools have been forced to close and access to medical care has been curtailed. In Kyiv, residents have set up heated tents for those without power or warmth.
In the southern Odesa region, around 300,000 people were left without water supplies and one person was wounded, the state emergency services said. In the eastern town of Lozova, two people were killed, power was cut to residents and authorities switched critical facilities to backup sources, according to local officials.
Central Dnipro reported four people wounded and heating cut to 10,000 customers, Restoration Minister Oleksiy Kuleba said. “This is yet another attempt to deprive Ukrainians of basic services in the middle of winter. But restoration efforts continue nonstop,” he said.
Ukraine says Russia’s campaign to degrade the power and heating grid is aimed at sapping morale and weakening resistance as the war approaches its fifth year.
As strikes intensified, the United Kingdom pledged more than €600 million in air defenses and other support to help Ukraine protect its skies. The British Defense Ministry said £150 million (€172 million) will go to a NATO scheme backed by U.S. President Donald Trump to buy American weaponry for Kyiv, and London will also send 1,000 British-made lightweight missiles worth more than £390 million (€447 million).
“Ukraine’s allies are more committed than ever to supporting Ukraine,” British Defense Minister John Healey said, as NATO defense ministers met in Brussels to discuss ramping up aid. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius condemned the strikes on the grid as “just terrorism against the civilian population of Ukraine,” adding, “So it is necessary to ramp up the support for Ukraine in terms of self-defense.”
Russia, meanwhile, said it repelled a missile attack in the Volgograd region, but reported that debris ignited a fire at a military facility and prompted the evacuation of a nearby village.
The UN rights office said the knock-on effects of the infrastructure assaults now touch nearly all facets of life in Ukraine—power, heat, water, schooling and health care—compounding the hardship of a winter many Ukrainians describe as the coldest and darkest of the war.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
