Zelensky appeals to UN Security Council over Russian attacks

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appealed to the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday (23) to take measures to stop Russian air strikes against vital infrastructure that have once again plunged Ukrainian cities into darkness and cold with the beginning of winter.

Russia launched a barrage of missiles into Ukraine earlier in the day, forcing the closure of nuclear power plants and killing civilians in Kiev.

“Today is just one day, but we received 70 missiles. This is the Russian formula for terror,” Zelensky said via video to the council chamber in New York, adding that hospitals, schools, transport infrastructure and residential areas were all hit.

Ukraine is waiting to see “a very firm reaction” from the world to Wednesday’s airstrikes, he added.

The council is unlikely to take any action in response to the appeal, as Russia is a member with veto power.

Zelensky urged Russia not to vote on any decision on its actions.

“We cannot be hostages of an international terrorist,” he said. “Russia is doing everything to make an energy generator a more powerful tool than the UN Charter.”

US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said Putin was “clearly setting up the winter to inflict immense suffering on the Ukrainian people”.

The Russian president “will try to freeze the country into submission,” she added.

Russia’s ambassador to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, responded by complaining that it was against council rules for Zelensky to appear via video and rejected what he called “reckless threats and ultimatums” from Ukraine and its backers in the West.

Nebenzya said damage to Ukraine’s infrastructure was caused by missiles fired by air defense systems that hit civilian areas after being fired at Russian missiles, and called on the West to stop supplying Ukraine with air defense missiles.