Ukrainians face a chilling new catastrophe as the first winter snow sets in after Russia’s recent missile bombardment crippled the country’s power network.
Successive waves of Russian missile strikes have damaged almost half of Ukraine’s energy system, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said.
With temperatures falling and snow appearing in the capital Kyiv, authorities were working to restore power across Ukraine after some of the heaviest bombardment of civilian infrastructure during nine months of war.
The United Nations has warned of a humanitarian disaster in Ukraine due to power and water shortages.
“Unfortunately Russia continues to carry out missile strikes on Ukraine’s civilian and critical infrastructure. Almost half of our energy system is disabled,” Mr Shmyhal said.
He was speaking at a joint news conference with a vice-president of the European Commission, Valdis Dombrovskis, who was visiting Kyiv to discuss emergency European Union financial aid.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said earlier about 10 million people were currently without power in a country with a pre-war population of about 44 million.
He said authorities in some areas ordered forced emergency blackouts.
“The aggressor country has officially recognised that its goal is to destroy our energy infrastructure and leave Ukrainians without electricity and heat,” Ukraine’s grid operator Ukrenergo said on the Telegram messaging app.
It said Russia had launched six large-scale missile attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure from October 10 to November 15.
Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had used long-range weapons on Thursday to strike defence and industrial facilities, including “missile manufacturing facilities”.
Ukrainian forces in the past 24 hours downed two Russian cruise missiles, five air-launched missiles and five Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones, Ukraine’s military said.
Reuters was unable to verify battlefield reports.
Russian forces plundered areas of the southern Kherson region that are now back under Ukrainian control following a recent counter-offensive, the deputy head of Zelenskiy’s administration said.
“After a trip to the… Kherson region, one thing became clear – our people there need a lot of help. The Russians not only killed and mined but also robbed all the cities and villages. There is practically nothing there,” Kyrylo Tymoshenko said on Telegram.
Investigators in liberated areas of Kherson region have uncovered 63 bodies bearing signs of torture after the Russian forces left, Ukraine’s interior minister was quoted as saying.
The Ukrainian parliament’s human rights commissioner, Dmytro Lubinets, released a video of what he said was a torture chamber used by Russian forces in the Kherson region, including a small room in which he said up to 25 people were kept at a time.
Pope offers his services
Pope Francis reiterated on Friday the Vatican was ready to do anything possible to mediate and put an end to the conflict.
“We must all be pacifists,” he told Italian daily La Stampa. “Wanting peace, not just a truce that may only serve to rearm. Real peace, which is the fruit of dialogue.”
In Donetsk and Luhansk regions, Russian forces have been reinforced by troops pulled from Kherson city in the south which Ukraine recaptured last week.
Investigators in recaptured territory in the Kherson area uncovered 63 bodies bearing signs of torture after Russian forces left, Ukraine’s interior minister was quoted as saying.
The Ukrainian parliament’s human rights commissioner, Dmytro Lubinets, released a video of what he said was a torture chamber used by Russian forces in the Kherson region, including a small room in which he said up to 25 people were kept at a time.
Reuters was unable to verify the allegations – which included the use of electric shocks to secure confessions – made by Lubinets and others in the video. Russia denies its troops deliberately attack civilians or have committed atrocities.
Mass burial sites have been found in other parts previously occupied by Russian troops, including some with civilian bodies showing signs of torture.
‘We are in the middle’
The central square of Kherson city was a frenetic melee of humanitarian aid queues and displays of patriotism on Thursday as residents celebrated their liberation from months of Russian occupation following Ukraine’s counter-offensive this month, but the mood was also one of deep uncertainty.
“We’re fine, but we don’t know what to expect. Nothing is over yet. On that (east) bank of the river, the (Russian) forces are gathering. On this side, they are gathering. We are in the middle,” said Ihor, 48, an unemployed builder.
A Reuters witness in Kherson heard explosions in the centre of Kherson on Friday morning and saw black smoke rising from behind buildings. The commotion did not seem to faze hundreds of people on the central square as they queued for humanitarian aid.
Elsewhere, Russian forces fired artillery on the towns of Bakhmut and nearby Soledar in the Donetsk region, among others, the Ukrainian military said.
Russian fire also hit Balakliya in northeastern Kharkiv region, which Ukraine recaptured in September, and Nikopol, a city on the opposite bank of the Kakhovka reservoir from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station, the statement said.
-AAP
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