Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday appealed to the United Nations Security Council to take action to stop Russian airstrikes on vital infrastructure that have plunged Ukrainian cities into darkness and cold again as winter approaches.
Earlier in the day, Russia launched a missile attack on Ukraine, forcing the shutdown of nuclear power plants and killing civilians in Kiev.
“Today is only one day, but we received 70 missiles. This is the Russian formula for terror,” Zelensky said via video link from the council chamber in New York, adding that hospitals, schools, transportation infrastructure and residential areas were affected.
Ukraine expects a “very tough 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 veto-wielding member.
Zelensky called for Russia to be denied a vote on any decisions related to its actions.
“We cannot be held hostage by one international terrorist,” he said. “Russia is doing everything to make the energy generator a more powerful tool than the UN Charter.”
The US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said that Putin is “clearly using the winter as a weapon to inflict enormous suffering on the Ukrainian people.”
The Russian president “will try to freeze the country into submission,” she added.
Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, Vasyl Nebenzia, responded by complaining that Zelensky’s appearance on the video was against the council’s rules and rejected what he called “reckless threats and ultimatums” by Ukraine and its supporters in the West.
Nebenzia said that the damage to Ukraine’s infrastructure was caused by missiles fired from air defense systems that fell on civilian areas after being fired by Russian missiles, and called on the West to stop supplying Ukraine with air defense missiles.