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Russia has carried out a Christmas Day assault on Ukraine’s power system, leaving greater than half 1,000,000 individuals with out heating, water and electrical energy.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated the attack, the thirteenth large-scale assault of 2024 on the nation’s grid, was “deliberate” and never a coincidence. “What might be extra inhuman?” he wrote on X.
About 50 of the 70 missiles fired within the assault had been intercepted, together with a “important” portion of the greater than 100 assault drones deployed, he added.
Oleh Syniehubov, governor of Ukraine’s jap Kharkiv area, instructed Ukraine’s nationwide tv information that the assault had left greater than 500,000 individuals with out heating, water and electrical energy.
In an announcement launched by the White Home, US President Joe Biden stated: “The Ukrainian individuals need to reside in peace and security, and america and the worldwide group should proceed to face with Ukraine till it triumphs over Russia’s aggression.”
Biden added that he had directed the Division of Protection “to proceed its surge of weapons deliveries to Ukraine”.
Heating provides had been additionally reduce in some areas of Ukraine’s Ivano-Frankivsk and Dnipropetrovsk areas, within the west and south of the nation. Temperatures throughout Ukraine are round freezing level.
Ukraine’s power grid operator, Ukrenergo, urged customers to restrict consumption by not switching on a number of home equipment without delay, including that the system was nonetheless recovering from the earlier Russian assault on December 13.
Ukraine’s largest non-public power firm, DTEK, stated that its energy stations had been broken and certainly one of its long-term workers killed.
Ukraine’s international minister, Andriy Sybiha, stated on X that the assault displays Russian President Vladimir Putin’s response to “those that spoke about illusionary ‘Christmas ceasefire’”.
This 12 months Ukrainians marked Christmas Day on December 25 for the second time, after switching to the western Gregorian calendar final 12 months. The choice to cease celebrating Christmas on January 7 in step with the Orthodox calendar was made by Kyiv to interrupt with Russian affect.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated final week that Zelenskyy had rejected his proposal for a ceasefire and prisoner change on the January 7 Orthodox Christmas.
Ukraine denied that such a proposal was ever on the desk, asking Hungary to “chorus from manipulations” concerning the struggle. On Friday, Heorhii Tykhyi, spokesperson for Ukraine’s international ministry, described it as “PR, a transfer” by Orbán.
