After the heaviest wave of Russian attacks in some time, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is putting pressure on Western states. Further sanctions are needed to curb the deadly attacks – even Europe’s largest nuclear power plant was hit by the hail of rockets, he argued. According to Ukraine, hypersonic missiles may also have been used in the attack, which was mainly intended to hit energy supplies.
After the first sirens sounded in the early hours of the morning, air raid sirens were maintained throughout Ukraine for hours on Thursday. As the local authorities eventually announced, the wave of attacks mainly affected power plants – in addition to Kiev, the regions of Kharkov in the east and Odessa in the south of the country complained of power outages.
Kiev military chief Serhiy Popko said the Russians also used the Kinzhal hypersonic missile in the attacks.
Zelenskyi: Russians use nuclear facilities for ‘terror’
There needs to be more pressure on Russia, Zelenskyj explained in his video message that will be distributed in Kiev every night on Thursday. He also criticized the fact that the Russian-occupied Zaporizhia nuclear power plant had been temporarily cut off from the power grid due to a rocket attack. “This is a critical situation,” Zelenskyj said. Russia can therefore no longer be a reliable partner in the nuclear field.
“This means that the sooner the Russian nuclear industry becomes the target of sanctions, the safer the world will be. A terrorist state cannot use nuclear facilities for terror anywhere in the world,” Zelenskyy said, referring to Zaporizhia. The nuclear power Russia builds and operates nuclear power plants in many countries (for example in Hungary).
Failures in electricity, heating, water
The Ukrainian head of state complained that Russia’s attacks on civilian infrastructure on Thursday caused partial blackouts of electricity, heating and water in some regions and cities. Six people were also killed, Zelenskyj said. The situation is most difficult in Kharkiv, in the Zhytomyr region west of Kiev.
“It is not easy in Odessa, in the Dnepropetrovsk region, in Kiev and in Zaporizhia. Repair units, engineers, local authorities, the central services – everyone will work until the energy supply of the cities and regions is restored,” he said. “No matter how treacherous the actions of Russia, our state and our people will still not be chained. Neither missiles nor Russian atrocities will help,” Zelensky said.
Von der Leyen promises support
The head of state also informed about a telephone conversation with Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, who had again pledged support to Ukraine. Accordingly, Selenskyj also called for an extension of sanctions against Russia during the conversation. At the same time, he reiterated his expectation that accession negotiations on Ukraine’s EU membership would start this year.
Source: Krone
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