Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky emphasized in his evening address that the country has successfully overcome the most challenging winter of the full-scale war. He thanked the military, energy workers, and all services that ensured stability during the cold season, but stressed that the threat remains relevant.
This is reported by Kyiv24
Russia plans new strikes in spring
Zelensky warned that Russian troops do not intend to stop their attacks on Ukraine and are already preparing new strikes, particularly on critical infrastructure. According to the president, intelligence provides relevant information regarding the preparation of new attacks. He urged everyone responsible for defending Ukraine to remain as focused in spring as they were in winter. The president highlighted the importance of operational responses to threats and maximum effectiveness in destroying enemy targets, considering the difficulty of ensuring complete protection against missile and drone attacks.
“They are preparing new attacks. On infrastructure. Intelligence provides relevant information. Therefore, everyone whose job, whose duty is to protect Ukraine from strikes must be just as focused in spring, now, as they were in winter. Every threat must be responded to and Russian targets must be shot down, to the maximum extent possible. The situation in the Middle East shows how difficult it is to provide one hundred percent protection against missiles and Shaheds,” the president stated.
Scale of shelling and signs of genocidal actions
In his address, Zelensky also reported that during the winter months, Russia launched over 700 missiles and nearly 19,000 strike drones against Ukraine. In just the last week, over 1,720 drone attacks, nearly 1,300 guided aerial bombs, and more than 100 missile strikes from the Russian Federation were recorded. Russian troops regularly use various types of weapons to attack Ukrainian cities and civilian infrastructure across all regions of the country.
Ukrainian authorities and international organizations consider these strikes as war crimes, emphasizing their targeted nature. Systematic shelling of energy facilities, medical institutions, and other vital systems aims to deprive people of electricity, heating, water supply, communication, and medical assistance, which experts estimate are signs of genocidal actions.
Among the manifestations of such actions are public declarations of intent to destroy Ukrainians, persecution and elimination of individuals with pro-Ukrainian positions in occupied territories, deportation of children, deliberate destruction of carriers of Ukrainian culture, as well as attempts to alter the identity of children through the education system in temporarily occupied territories.
The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1948, defines genocide as actions committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. To date, 149 countries are parties to this Convention, committing to prevent acts of genocide and punish them in both wartime and peacetime.
Despite this, the Russian leadership denies targeted strikes on Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure, as well as the killing of civilians and the destruction of vital facilities.