‘Ukraine needs extra gas, weapons’
KYIV—President Volodymyr Zelensky urged G7 nations on Monday to provide extra gas and weapons to help Ukraine survive a brutal winter that threatens to bring further suffering to millions in the war-torn country.
With snow on the ground and Ukraine’s energy grid battered by Russian strikes, many are facing freezing temperatures without power or heating.
During a video conference with the G7 club of wealthy nations on Monday, Zelensky said Ukraine needs “about two billion cubic metres” of additional gas to get through the winter.
He also urged the G7 to send more arms to Ukraine, including “modern
tanks” as well as “rocket artillery and more long-range missiles”.
Western-supplied weapons have helped turn the tide in the war, and a senior US military official said Monday that Russia is likely turning to older, less reliable artillery and rocket ammunition as its newer stocks run low.
But Zelensky said “Russia still has the advantage in artillery and missiles.”
“This is a fact,” he told the G7. “These capabilities of the occupying army are the ones to fuel the Kremlin’s arrogance”.
‘We will survive’
Meanwhile, in the strategic Ukrainian port of Ochakiv, officials are hoping the Black Sea naval base can serve to consolidate Kyiv’s gains in the southern Kherson region.
After failing to seize the port, Russian troops have been pummelling Ochakiv from the nearby Kinburn peninsula.
In the fog at the local market, 62-yearold Oleg Klyutshko said: “I am not afraid of winter... but I would like the strikes to stop. We will survive anything else.”
Kyiv says 40 percent of Ukraine’s critical energy infrastructure has been damaged, with wave after wave of targeted Russian attacks.
The Ukrainian energy ministry said in a statement that Russian missiles had hit all of the country’s thermal power plants, while 44 overhead high-voltage power lines had also been affected.
Power company YASNO said supply limitations in Kyiv were “significant” with some 40 percent of supplies diverted to critical infrastructure.
Oil and gas company DTEK said its specialists were “constantly looking for equipment to restore the energy infrastructure destroyed by Russia” and had agreed on contracts with European suppliers ABB and Siemens.