New Russian Strikes Pummel Ukraine, Leaving Residents Without Power, Struggling for Winter Shelters

A new wave of Russian strikes has pummeled Ukraine's infrastructure, including the latter's energy grid, and left its citizens without power, forcing people into winter shelters.

The attacks on Wednesday robbed Ukrainian cities of electricity and some of water and public transport, worsening the struggles that civilians were already facing. Furthermore, the aerial strikes took nuclear plants and internet links offline, causing blackouts in neighboring Moldova.

Russian Strikes on Ukraine

Several areas in Ukraine reported attacks in quick succession resulting in cascading power outages. In a statement, the country's Energy Ministry said that supplies were cut to "the vast majority of electricity consumers.

Officials said that Lviv's trams and trolleybuses were also forced to stop operations as the city in western Ukraine lost both power and water. The mayor of Kyiv said that the country's capital lost water as well. Furthermore, in Kharkiv, public transport was stopped due to the strikes, causing a major disturbance in Ukraine's second-largest city, as per Yahoo News.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also instructed the country's ambassador to the United Nations to request an urgent Security Council meeting. During an address on Wednesday, the president said that his nation will put forward a resolution condemning "any forms of energy terror."

Zelensky was likely referring to Russia's expected veto, adding that "it's nonsense that the veto right is secured for the party that wages this war, this criminal war." He argued that Ukraine cannot be hostage to one international terrorist, saying that the council must act.

According to CNBC, Ukrainian authorities added that one person was killed while another was injured following a Russian missile strike on Kyiv. In a statement, the Kyiv city military administration said that a two-story building was damaged due to the strike and officials advised residents to stay in shelters until the air alert ends.

Ukraine's Energy Grid

On the other hand, the European Parliament designated Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism. European lawmakers, in a largely symbolic move, said that deliberate attacks by the Kremlin's forces and their proxies against Ukrainian civilians constitute war crimes.

However, Russian authorities have continued to deny that they target civilians amid the war. Moscow's missile strikes directed at civilian targets did not have a military purpose, however, were intended to increase Ukrainian suffering and death, said the U.S. National Security Council on Wednesday.

NSC spokesperson Adrienne Watson said that as Russia continues to struggle on the ground, it has turned to increasingly horrific attacks against Ukrainian civilians. This includes attacks on the energy grid infrastructure and doing so deliberately as winter approaches.

Furthermore, Moscow's latest strikes heightened concerns about the possible use of nuclear force in the conflict. Over the weekend, shelling damaged Europe's largest nuclear power plant, Zaporizhzhia.

During the emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, Zelensky said via video link that when they have the temperature below zero and millions of people were without power, heating, and water, it was an obvious act of crime against humanity, referring to Russia's recent strikes against Ukraine's infrastructure, Al Jazeera reported.