Zelensky accuses Putin of “human attack” on Natal Day

The Ukrainian President today accused the Russian head of state, Vladimir Putin, of carrying out an “inhumane” attack on Christmas Day, launching several dozen missiles and more than 100 explosive drones against Ukraine.

“Today Putin consciously chose Christmas for his attack. What could be more inhumane?” Volodymyr Zelensky no Telegram.

“More than 50 missiles” and several drones were shot down, but some attacks caused “electricity cuts in several regions”, added the Ukrainian President.

It is “Natal terror is Putin’s response to those who spoke of an illusory ‘Christmas ceasefire’” between Kiev and Moscow, said Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha.

The attack caused death of at least one person and left at least six injured, according to authorities.

One of the Russian missiles launched during the attack crossed the airspace of Moldova and Romania, the head of Ukrainian diplomacy said, adding: this fact “reminds us that Russia does not just threaten Ukraine”, he highlighted on the social network X.

Romania, a member of NATO, has already stated that it did not detect any violation of its airspace by a Russian missile aimed at Ukraine, following these allegations from Kiev.

“The aerial surveillance system, an integral part of the NATO system, did not detect such a situation”, says a statement from the Ministry of Defense, indicating that “the data do not confirm that a missile violated Romanian airspace”.

Since the start of the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russia has regularly bombed the neighboring country’s electricity gridplunging hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people into darkness and cold, often during winter.

The DTEK group, the country’s main private energy supplier, declared on Wednesday that its thermal power plants had been the target of this new attackhaving recorded “serious damage” to its equipment. “This is already the 13th massive attack to the Ukrainian energy system this year,” DTEK said in a statement.

“Deprive millions of peaceful people of light and heat who celebrate Christmas is a depraved and evil act that must be combated”, the executive director of DTEK, Maxim Timchenkoat X, calling on Kiev’s allies to provide more air defenses.

In the early hours of Wednesday, an air alert was triggered across Ukraine, while the air force reported the launch of Russian ballistic and cruise missiles.

Authorities in Kharkiv, the country’s second largest city, located in the northeast, close to the border with Russia, reported “at least seven attacks” against the city.

At least six people were injured, regional governor Oleg Synegoubov announced on Telegram.

The Dnipropetrovsk region (central-east) was also attacked. Explosions were heard in the capital, Dnipro, and in Kryvyï Rig, President Zelensky’s hometown.

“One person was killed as a result of the missile attack on energy facilities,” said regional governor Serguiï Lyssak.

The Ivano-Frankivsk regional administration announced that part of this territory, located in the west of the country, hundreds of kilometers from the front line, was without electricity.

In the Poltava region (center), authorities reported damage to infrastructure.

The national electricity company, Ukrenergo, announced supply restrictions.

“The enemy is, once again, carrying out a massive attack on the energy sector” and the authorities are taking “the necessary measures to limit consumption, in order to minimize the negative consequences for the energy system”, Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko wrote on Telegram.

Wednesday’s attacks occurred on the day that Ukraine, for the second time in its modern history, celebrates Christmas Day on December 25th, as in the Western world, and no longer on January 7th, as in the Julian calendar followed. by the Russian Orthodox Church.

This date change was made official in the summer of 2023 by a law promulgated by the President, Volodymyr Zelensky, as a sign of defiance against Russia.