The Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the UN, Andrii Melnyk, stated during a Security Council meeting that Russia deliberately chose a period of severe frost for massive strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. According to him, such actions left millions of civilians without light, heat, and water at a time when nighttime temperatures reached minus 20 degrees.
This is reported by Kyiv24
“The terrible consequence of Russia’s brutal attacks is that millions of peaceful Ukrainians, including my family in Kyiv, were left without electricity, heating, and water supply when nighttime temperatures approached minus 20 degrees… What we are witnessing these days resembles some of the most notorious precedents in human history, when empires of evil attempted to break civil resistance by turning cold, hunger, and darkness into weapons,” said the Ukrainian diplomat.
A New Level of Escalation and the True Goals of the Kremlin
Andrii Melnyk drew parallels between the current destruction in Ukraine and events of World War II, emphasizing the scale of the damage caused. He described Russia’s use of the ballistic missile “Orekhnik” against the Lviv region as a “new level of escalation” and stressed that Russia’s explanations, claiming it was a response to a Ukrainian attack on Putin’s residence, are false.
Melnyk noted that the true aim of such strikes is to intimidate Ukraine’s Western allies and partners. According to him, the Kremlin is trying to create an illusion of strength while actually demonstrating its own vulnerability: “The Kremlin once puffed out its cheeks and showed strength, but all of this is just a fig leaf hiding the weakness of the Russian military machine, which is inevitably approaching a critical point.”
Russia’s Economic Stagnation and a Call to Partners
The Ukrainian diplomat stated that Russia is experiencing prolonged economic stagnation similar to that observed in the 1990s. The expected oil surplus in the world by 2026, according to Melnyk, will further exacerbate the crisis in the Russian Federation. He specifically pointed out that Russia is suffering the greatest losses among men aged 20-39 – a key working and reproductive group. Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Russia has lost more than 1.2 million military personnel killed or wounded, averaging 1,200 soldiers per day just last year.
Melnyk expressed confidence that economic difficulties are pushing Moscow towards ultimatums and attempts to intimidate the international community to impose its conditions for ending the war. He also accused the Russian Federation of deliberately sabotaging US peace initiatives and called on Ukraine’s partners to share air defense resources and increase economic pressure on the aggressor.
Following Russia’s latest attack on Ukraine, which occurred on the night of January 9, the UN Security Council held a meeting at the initiative of the Ukrainian side. During this attack, Russian forces used, among other things, a medium-range ballistic missile “Orekhnik” against the Lviv region. Ukrainian military reported that the launch occurred from the Kapustin Yar range in the Astrakhan region. The Russian Ministry of Defense confirmed the use of this missile, calling it a response to an allegedly Ukrainian strike, which Ukraine and its Western partners denied.
The Security Service of Ukraine published photographs of missile debris found in Lviv region. At the same time, according to monitoring channels and the BBC, the missile was likely without a warhead or with dummy charges. British intelligence reported that this is already the second case of using the “Orekhnik,” which flew about 1622 km to its target.
President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Russia is preparing a new massive attack on Ukraine, which could be carried out in the coming days. On the night and morning of January 13, Ukraine was already subjected to a combined missile strike from the Russian Federation.