Russia Losing the Battle to Ukraine, And Maliciously Terrorizing Its Population

"This winter will be life-threatening for millions of people in Ukraine."

"Attacks on health and energy infrastructure mean hundreds of hospitals and health care facilities are no longer fully operational, lacking fuel, water and electricity."

Dr. Hans Henri P. Kluge, regional director for Europe, World Health Organization

 

"Russia’s infrastructure bombing campaign has been so severe that in one single attack no less than eight missiles were fired at a thermal power plant in eastern Ukraine to ensure its destruction."

"Despite the severity of the bombing, Ukrainian technicians and engineers have been rushing to repair the damaged infrastructure, often risking their lives amid the threat of further airstrikes."

"Nevertheless, the situation is fast becoming critical."

Aura Sabadus, Atlantic Council 

"The unwillingness of the Ukrainian side to settle the problem, to start negotiations, its refusal to seek common ground — this is their consequence."

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov

Russia may have suffered losses on the battlefield, but they are still able to carry on their scorched-earth assaults on Ukraine from the east side of the Dnieper River where they are dug in and holding on to the terrain, much reduced from the territory claimed by the Kremlin weeks earlier in its 'annexation' proclamation. Russian bombers have been well practised in shelling civilian enclaves; their work for Bashar al-Assad in Syria stood them in good stead as practise runs.

There too, they bombed hospitals, schools, markets, civilian infrastructure of multiple-family dwellings where Syrian Sunni "terrorists" defied the tyrannical rule of the Assad regime. There was no Russian conscience at that time, and nor is there one at the present time, as the Kremlin feels itself justified in 'saving' Ukraine from its 'neo-Nazi' government as ordered by President Vladimir Putin who enjoys making his own history and whose agenda is the destruction of Ukrainian heritage and culture.

Against all recognized international norms, Russia has embarked on its 'special military operation' to reunite an unwilling Ukraine with the Russian Federation. Moscow's intention was that this would be a swift operation and then it could concentrate similar reunifications with others of its neighbours all of which shudder at the very prospect of once again becoming victims of a sovereign-entitlement Russia deeply engaged in empire restoration. 

Ukrainian authorities are desperately engaged in evacuating civilians from the liberated areas of Kherson and Mykolaiv regions with the prospect of a lack of heat, power and water resulting from Russian shelling producing unlivable conditions for the coming winter. Millions of people, according to the World Health Organization, face a "life-threatening" winter in Ukraine. Residents of the southern regions are being urged to move to safer areas in central and western areas of the country.

The government is providing transportation, accommodations and medical care to evacuees, prioritizing women with children and the elderly. Last month Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Verescchuk urged people living abroad to wait out the winter before returning to Ukraine, as an additional assist in consErving energy. And that residents who have the resources, to leave for several months to save power for hospitals and critical facilities.

Residents are warned of health risks like respiratory and cardiovascular problems with people attempting to warm themselves with the use of charcoal, wood, diesel generators and electrical heaters. Kherson, so recently retaken by Ukraine, has been evaluated for its critical loss of infrastructure destroyed by the Russian military in what could only be an organized, malevolent destruction of civil infrastructure to deliberately make life untenable for Ukrainians.

Ukraine's power grid and allied infrastructure has been continuously pounded and shattered from the air, the cause of widespread blackouts that leave millions of people without electricity, without heat, without water. Four-hour or longer power outages have been scheduled in 15 of Ukraine's 27 regions in a coping strategy of desperation. 

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has renews\ed his calls for NATO nations and other allies to confer on Russia the label of a terrorist state. The Russian shelling of energy supplies tantamount "to the use of a weapon of mass destruction". "The terrorist state needs to see that they do not stand a chance", he said speaking to NATO's 68th Parliamentary Assembly meeting in Madrid through video conference.

Pedestrians walk down a street during a power cut in downtown Kyiv on November 10, 2022, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP)