Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pleaded with the United Nations Security Council to act against Russia, accusing it of committing a “crime against humanity” as the country continues to be targeted by missiles.
Millions of civilians in Ukraine are without power, water, or heat as Russia continues to bombard the country’s energy infrastructure as winter approaches. According to one Ukrainian official, ten people died yesterday as a result of additional shelling, with Zelenskyy claiming Russia fired 70 missiles at civilian infrastructure.
“When we have the temperature below zero, and further millions of people stay without energy supplies, without heating, without water, this is an obvious crime against humanity,” he said.
Ukraine wanted to see “a very firm reaction” from the rest of the world to Wednesday’s airstrikes, Zelenskyy said, urging the UN Security Council to “take specific steps to protect humanity and life.”
Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the United States’ Permanent Representative to the United Nations, told the council that such attacks on infrastructure are a “shameful escalation in Russia’s already brutal, unjustifiable war.”
However, the council’s powers are limited because Russia is one of five permanent members with a veto over any resolutions.
As millions of Ukrainians face power, heat, and water shortages as a result of Russian missile strikes, the Kremlin has stated that meeting its demands will end “people’s suffering.”
“The leadership of Ukraine has every opportunity to bring the situation back to normal, has every opportunity to resolve the situation in such a way as to fulfill the requirements of the Russian side and, accordingly, stop all possible suffering of the civilian population,” Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesman, told reporters Thursday,”
Peskov did not reaffirm Russia’s demands, which have altered during the crisis and in the months preceding up to it, when Moscow asked that NATO reduce its deployments to eastern Europe and pledge that Ukraine would never be accepted to the military alliance.
When Russia invaded Ukraine in February, it said its goal was to “demilitarise and de-Nazify Ukraine,” spreading a false and unjustified charge against Kyiv’s leadership. It subsequently shifted its military objectives to the “liberation” of Donbas, in eastern Ukraine, which is home to two pro-Russian separatist “republics.” Ukraine has said that it would not stop fighting until it has recaptured all of its seized territories from Russian soldiers.
