Zelensky blasts Putin's 'inhumane' Christmas Day attack on Ukraine's energy infrastructure
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Ukraine’s President has hit out at an “inhumane” Russian attack on Christmas Day targeting the war-torn country’s energy infrastructure. Ukraine's air defence downed over 50 Russian missiles out of 70 launched on Wednesday morning during the Christmas Day attack on energy infrastructure, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
"Today, Putin deliberately chose Christmas to attack. What could be more inhumane? More than 70 missiles, including ballistic missiles, and more than a hundred attack drones," Zelensky said on the Telegram messenger. The strike hit a thermal power plant and prompted Ukrainians to take shelter in metro stations on Christmas morning. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said one Russian missile passed Moldovan and Romanian airspace.
Nearly three years into the war, the strikes wounded at least six people in the northeastern city of Kharkiv and killed one in the region of Dnipropetrovsk, the governors there said. Half a million people in Kharkiv region were left without heating, in temperatures just a few degrees Celsius above zero, while there were blackouts in the capital Kyiv and elsewhere.
"The targets are our energy. They continue to fight for a blackout in Ukraine," Zelensky said. Ukrainian energy minister, Herman Halushchenko, said Russia again "massively attacks energy infrastructure," in a Facebook statement. Ukraine's Air Force alerted multiple missiles fired at Kharkiv, Dnipro, and Poltava regions east of the country.
