Russia is attacking Ukrainian power plants because it wants to force people to leave their homes and move westward to European Union nations, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday.
Zelenskiy earlier this week said Russia had already destroyed around a third of the country’s power plants, causing electricity and water cuts as winter approaches. Kyiv ordered nationwide power restrictions for the first time on Thursday.
Municipal workers check an electrical network of public transport before possible power outages, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Mykolaiv, Ukraine, on 20th October . PICTURE: Reuters/Valentyn Ogirenko
The United Nations says 7.7 million Ukrainians, roughly 19 per cent of the pre-war population, are now living across Europe after fleeing in the wake of the 24th February invasion. Some refugees have struggled to find decently-paid jobs.
“Russia is provoking a new wave of migration of Ukrainians to European Union countries,” Zelenskiy said in video remarks to an EU summit. Zelenskiy’s office released a recording of his remarks.
“Russian terror against our energy facilities is aimed at creating as many problems with electricity and heat as possible for Ukraine this autumn and winter, so that more Ukrainians go to European countries,” he said.
In response, allied nations should provide more anti-aircraft systems and impose additional sanctions on Iran, which produces some of the drones Moscow is using, he said.
Meanwhile, Russian-installed authorities in the occupied Ukrainian region of Kherson said on Wednesday that they plan to evacuate around 50,000 to 60,000 people over the next six days amid escalating pressure from a Ukrainian counteroffensive.
Russian-installed Governor Vladimir Saldo said authorities were moving civilians to the left [east] bank of the Dnipro River in order to “keep people safe” and allow the military to “act resolutely”.
“I drove through the regional centre this morning. On the exterior, there was nothing to suggest there was a lot of pressure,” Saldo said.
“But when I arrived at the river port I saw that the boats were waiting and are already loaded with people ready to go to the left bank of the Dnipro,” he said, adding that the situation “is getting tense.”
He said an estimated 10,000 people a day would be moved over the next six days, and that some regions in Russia were being prepared to accept people.
Local people queue to fill up bottles with fresh drinking water, as the main supply pipeline for drinking water for the city was damaged in Kherson region at the beginning of Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Mykolaiv, Ukraine, on 16th October. PICTURE: Reuters/Valentyn Ogirenko
Kherson residents have received text messages warning of the urgent need to evacuate, Russian state TV reported. More than 5,000 have left in the last two days, Saldo said.
Russia took control of most of Ukraine’s southern Kherson region shortly after invading in February, and proclaimed it as annexed in September in a move that Kyiv and the West denounced as illegal.
Russian forces have been driven back by 20 to 30 kilometres in the last few weeks, and risk being pinned against the western bank of the Dnipro as Ukraine wages a counteroffensive in the region.
– With Reuters correspondents
