Скачать или смотреть Ukraine: Russian attacks on energy terrorize population as winter starts

The UN’s top aid official in #Ukraine expressed concern on Friday about “continuous attacks” on energy production sites and distribution facilities.

The heavy humanitarian and psychological toll of these strikes is compounded by the expectation that this year’s winter will be much colder than last year’s, and that the destruction of energy infrastructure may outpace the rate of recovery.

“We are very worried about people living in high-rise buildings in cities near the front line – that could turn into a major crisis,” Matthias Schmale, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine, told reporters in Geneva.

Mr. Schmale’s comments came a day after a massive Russian attack across Ukraine reportedly targeted critical energy infrastructure in civilian areas.

With 705 munitions reportedly deployed the barrage was among the largest since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in 2022.

If people in frontline cities like Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv or Dnipro in high-rise apartment buildings are “stuck without electricity or safe water for days on end” during a harsh winter, Mr. Schmale explained, then “there is no way that with the available resources we would be able to respond to a major crisis within a crisis.”

“Destroying energy production and distribution capacity as winter starts clearly impacts the civilian population and is a form of terror,” Mr. Schmale insisted. “The continued strikes throughout the country also give a sense of nowhere is safe… in my almost one and a half years there, [I] feel and sense that the mental health impact of this war is increasing,” he added.