EU declares Russia sponsor of ‘terror’
Fresh Russian strikes battered Ukraine’s already failing electricity grid, causing blackouts across the wartorn nation and in neighbouring Moldova, in attacks Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told the UN were “an obvious crime against humanity”.
The Ukrainian energy system has been left in tatters and millions have been subjected to long periods without electricity after weeks of Russian bombardments, with the World Health Organisation (WHO) warning the country’s priority this winter would be “survival”.
Ukraine’s military said Russian forces had fired around 70 cruise missiles at targets across the country Wednesday and also deployed attack drones.
The strikes piled pressure on the Ukrainian grid, disrupting power supplies in southern and eastern regions, with water and electricity cuts in the capital Kyiv.
“When we have the temperature below zero, and scores of millions of people without energy supplies, without heating, without water, this is an obvious crime against humanity,” Mr Zelensky told the UN Security Council late Wednesday via video link.
The strikes killed several people and disconnected three nuclear power stations, officials said.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the latest Russian salvo was a response to a decision by the European Parliament to recognise Russia as a “state sponsor of terrorism” over its nine-month invasion of Ukraine and its call for the 27-nation EU to follow. The French Ambassador to the United Nations called the Russian attacks on the Ukrainian energy system “a clear violation of humanitarian law”. “The objective is clear: in the face of military defeats, to sow terror,” Nicolas de Riviere told the UN Security Council on Wednesday. “The continuation of these reprisals is intolerable.”
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko wrote on Telegram that three people were killed in the attacks in the capital, including a 17-year-old girl, and 11 residents were injured.
Russia has systematically targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, causing severe damage to around half of the country’s power facilities.
The WHO has cautioned that winter will be “life-threatening” for millions of people as a result. The WHO has recorded more than 700 attacks on Ukraine’s health facilities since Russia’s invasion began in February, it said this week.
Wednesday’s decision by European legislators to recognise Russia as a “state sponsor of terrorism” is a symbolic political step with no legal consequences.
Kyiv has for months called on the international community to declare Russia a “terrorist state”, and the Strasbourg parliament’s decision will likely anger Moscow.
The resolution approved by EU lawmakers said the “deliberate attacks and atrocities carried out by the Russian Federation against the civilian population of Ukraine... and other serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law amount to acts of terror”. Ukraine praised the decision, with Mr Zelensky calling for Russia to be “held accountable in order to end its long-standing policy of terrorism in Ukraine and across the globe”.