[Dan Bashakov/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images]
An overnight Russian bombardment on Kyiv left thousands of residential buildings and parliament without heating and water in -14C temperatures and killed at least one man on Tuesday, just as the Ukrainian capital was scrambling to restore vital utilities destroyed in earlier attacks.
More than half a million people have evacuated from the capital this month, when Russia unleashed its strongest attack on the capital’s energy infrastructure in the war, the city’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, told AFP.
Sheltering in a metro station in the centre of Kyiv, Marina Sergienko, a 51-year-old accountant, said she thought the repeated Russian strikes, which have left millions in the cold and dark over recent weeks, had a clear purpose.
“To wear down the people, push things to some critical point so there’s no strength left, to break our resistance,” she told AFP, taking cover alongside dozens of others bundled in hats and coats.
Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga lashed out at Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying Putin, whom he called a war criminal, continued to wage a genocidal war against women, children and the elderly.
He said Russian forces had targeted energy infrastructure overnight in at least seven regions, and urged Ukraine’s allies to bolster its air defence systems
Zelensky says ‘we are living in Groundhog Day’ in scathing attack on world leaders over lack of support
Volodymyr Zelensky delivered a scathing speech at Davos, criticising European leaders for their perceived inaction, “endless internal arguments”, and ‘Groundhog Day’ approach to supporting Ukraine against Russia.
During his address, the Ukrainian president announced that the first trilateral peace talks involving Kyiv, Moscow, and the US would take place in the UAE on Friday.
Zelensky implored European leaders to demonstrate greater unity and courage, urging them to act independently of the US and not rely on Donald Trump to change his stance.
He specifically criticised Europe’s failure to utilise frozen Russian assets for Ukraine’s benefit and questioned why the continent was not stopping Russia’s ‘shadow fleet’ of oil tankers.
Hours after Zelensky’s remarks, the French navy, supported by Britain, intercepted a sanctioned Russian ‘shadow fleet’ oil tanker in the Mediterranean, with French President Emmanuel Macron confirming the action.
PARIS (AP) — France’s navy, working with intelligence provided by the United Kingdom, on Thursday intercepted an oil tanker in the Mediterranean Sea that traveled from Russia, in a mission targeting the sanctioned Russian shadow fleet, officials said.
French maritime authorities for the Mediterranean said the ship, the Grinch, is suspected of operating with a false flag. The French navy is escorting the ship to anchorage for more checks, the statement said. The tanker departed from the city of Murmansk in northwestern Russia, it said.
Retired, living in the Scottish Borders after living most of my life in cities in England. I can now indulge my interest in all aspects of living close to nature in a wild landscape. I live on what was once the Iapetus Ocean which took millions of years to travel from the Southern Hemisphere to here in the Northern Hemisphere. That set me thinking and questioning and seeking answers.
In 1998 I co-wrote Millennium Countdown (US)/ A Business Guide to the Year 2000 (UK) see https://www.abebooks.co.uk/products/isbn/9780749427917
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