Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday spoke to the UN Security Council via video link to express concern over his country's continuous bombardment by Russia as a bitter winter looms.
The leader asked the 15-member body to condemn and investigate Russia's increasing attacks on civilian infrastructure that have caused a near collapse of Ukraine's electricity and water systems.
“We have the temperature below zero and … millions of people are without energy supplies, without heating and without water,” he said.
“This is an obvious crime against humanity.”
The World Health Organisation's regional director for Europe, Hans Kluge, said earlier this week that “this winter will be about survival” for millions in the country.
“If [Russian President Vladimir Putin] gets his way, millions of Ukrainians will be left without power, water and heat during these cold winter months,” US ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said on Wednesday.
Ukraine's largest energy company Energoatom reported that strikes on Wednesday had disconnected all three nuclear power plants under its control from the grid, causing widespread power cuts, while shelling has forced the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia plant to operate on backup generators.
The government in Kyiv has even suggested that citizens leave the country as 40 per cent of the energy system is shattered.
“We can see obviously that the peaceful people are suffering,” Mr Zelenskyy told the UN Security Council.
A Russian strike hit a maternity ward in the Zaporizhzhia region on Wednesday, killing a newborn baby.
“We cannot be hostage to an international terrorist,” the Ukrainian leader added.
Ukraine capital Kyiv hit by kamikaze drones — in pictures
No Shame
Lily Allen
(Parlophone)
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Miss Granny
Director: Joyce Bernal
Starring: Sarah Geronimo, James Reid, Xian Lim, Nova Villa
3/5
(Tagalog with Eng/Ar subtitles)
Fighting with My Family
Director: Stephen Merchant
Stars: Dwayne Johnson, Nick Frost, Lena Headey, Florence Pugh, Thomas Whilley, Tori Ellen Ross, Jack Lowden, Olivia Bernstone, Elroy Powell
Four stars
