By Hugo Bashega (Kew), Merlin Thomas (London), BBC News
image provided, Getty Images
According to the United Nations, 7.7 million people fled Ukraine to European countries, including Russia.
The Ukrainian government has urged its citizens who fled abroad not to return until next spring. This is because Russia’s attacks have strained energy plants and the government wants to relieve it.
“The (energy) grid can’t do it,” Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk said Thursday. “You can see what Russia is doing.”
“We have to survive the winter,” he added.
He also said he wanted his people to return to Ukraine next spring, but said it was important not to return soon because “the situation is only getting worse”.
“If possible, I want you to stay overseas for the time being,” he said.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said more than a third of the country’s energy sector was destroyed by Russian air strikes.
Since the start of the war in Ukraine, the country’s economy has deteriorated significantly. Zelensky has asked the world for urgent help to cover a budget deficit that is expected to reach $ 38 billion next year.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says Ukraine needs $ 3 billion a month to avoid bankruptcy next year. If Russian artillery fire intensifies, the figure will rise to $ 5 billion.
Deputy Mayor of the Western City of Lviv Serhiy Kilal told the BBC on Monday that Russia’s strategy was to destroy critical infrastructure before winter and take the war off the front lines.
Focus on energy plants
Russia recently attacked Ukrainian energy grids. It claimed to be retaliation for attacks on Crimean rail and road bridges, which Russia declared annexed in 2014.
Recent attacks have targeted the Cherkassy province, southeast of the capital Kiev, and the city of Khmelnytsky, further west.
On Monday, Zelensky accused Russia of undermining the Kakhovka hydroelectric dam in the southern province of Kherson. Hundreds of thousands of people would be at risk of flooding if the dam was destroyed, he said. The province is controlled by the Russian army.
Russia says it has no plans to blow up the dam and claims Ukraine is firing missiles at it.
United NationsAccording to the refugee agencyAbout 7.7 million of the country’s roughly 44 million people have fled across Europe, including Russia, since Russia began invading Ukraine in February.
