(AFP) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday accused Russia of intensifying strikes across the country to put pressure on Kyiv at upcoming talks after an overnight barrage triggered power cuts as temperatures drop. The latest strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure came days before the trilateral US-brokered meeting in Abu Dhabi scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday aimed at reviving stalled diplomatic efforts towards peace.
Ukraine’s energy ministry said “a massive attack on a number of energy facilities” had plunged five regions into darkness and significantly hampered electricity transmission in Kyiv and the surrounding region. Zelensky said the timing of the aerial barrage showed that Russia had a “very particular view of diplomacy” as it struck ahead of “another joint effort with our partners to reinvigorate negotiations.”
“By intensifying its attacks on Ukraine and our infrastructure at this very moment, Russia is trying to additionally lay the groundwork for putting pressure on Ukraine’s position and that of its partners,” Zelensky said. Moscow has battered Ukraine’s energy grid and infrastructure throughout its four-and-a-half-year invasion, and Kyiv was now bracing for another harsh winter as temperatures begin to hover around freezing.
Zelensky also said Russia had throughout the night launched 172 drones and 36 ballistic missiles, among which, according to him, were KN-23 missiles manufactured and supplied by North Korea. They hit “one of the key energy facilities that was damaged,” Zelensky said. Russia has turned to North Korea for support throughout the invasion. Earlier in the war, Pyongyang dispatched thousands of troops to help Russia fight back a Ukrainian counterattack in its western Kursk region.
The Russian defence ministry in a statement Saturday said it had struck “facilities belonging to the military-industrial complex, the energy sector, and transport infrastructure” in Kyiv and its surrounding region.
– ‘Shortage’ of interceptors –
Zelensky urged the United States to increase its flagging aid to Ukraine. “Unfortunately, there is still a significant shortage of interceptors for Patriot systems, and the United States is in the best position to help address it,” Zelensky said. The overnight strikes damaged energy facilities and a key bridge in Kyiv, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said earlier on Saturday, warning that the energy supply situation was “extremely difficult.”
Consumers in the Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kyiv, Zhytomyr, and Kharkiv regions were left without power, the energy ministry said. It did not say how many homes were affected. On Tuesday and Wednesday, Ukrainian officials are expected to sit down with Russian negotiators and US envoys for the first such direct talks in months. The diplomatic track has been stalled since February when Washington shifted attention to its war with Iran.
US President Donald Trump’s repeated attempts to broker an end to the war have foundered over Moscow’s sweeping territorial demands, particularly its insistence on controlling all of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, including areas still held by Kyiv. Zelensky has rejected surrendering Ukrainian-held territory, warning that Russia could use it as a springboard for another attack. Russia, which launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, now occupies roughly one-fifth of Ukrainian territory.
© 2024 AFP
