Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his countrymen survived the winter thanks to efforts by authorities to provide electricity and heating, but warned that Russia continued to pose a threat to the country’s energy system, Reuters reported.
“Winter is over. It was hard and all Ukrainians, without exaggerating, felt the difficulties,” Zelensky said in his traditional evening video address, which he delivered this time after a meeting devoted to energy issues. “However, we managed to provide Ukraine with electricity and heating”, he pointed out and added that the work to keep the energy system functioning does not stop.
At the same time, the Ukrainian president warned that “the threat to the energy system (of the country) remains”.
Traditionally, on March 1, Ukraine celebrates the end of winter, although the weather may continue to be cold, Reuters notes.
Russia regularly launches deliberate missile strikes on its neighboring country’s energy infrastructure to bring it to its knees. Such attacks have a serious impact on the daily lives of civilians, warn human rights groups, some of which consider these attacks to be war crimes.
As a result of Russian missile strikes, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians are left without electricity.
The armed forces of Ukraine keep all sections of the front under control, Zelensky also said.
He said this just hours after the Ukrainian military command reported that Russian troops were advancing in the Bakhmut region.
Bloody battles have been going on for months for the eastern Ukrainian city, which is a main target for Moscow./BTA, Nikolay Stanoev/
