Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will address the United Nations Security Council by video on Wednesday during an emergency meeting he himself called for after new Russian strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure.
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Mr. Zelensky is due to speak to the Security Council via video link at around 4 p.m. in New York (2100 GMT), two diplomats told AFP after the Ukrainian head of state announced on Twitter that he had “given instructions” its ambassador to the UN, Sergiy Kyslytsya, to request an emergency meeting.
“The killing of civilians, the destruction of civilian infrastructure are terrorist actions. Ukraine continues to demand a determined response from the international community to these crimes,” President Zelensky wrote.
In the letter sent by kyiv to the President of the Security Council, which AFP consulted, Ambassador Kyslytsya also writes that Russia “perpetrated a new terrorist act against the Ukrainian civilian population” with the strikes on Wednesday.
These Russian strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure led to massive power and water cuts, particularly in the capital kyiv, killing at least six people, causing the disconnection of three nuclear power plants and affecting neighboring Moldova.
According to the Ukrainian Air Force, Russia fired around 70 cruise missiles at the country, 51 of which were shot down, along with five suicide bombers. They targeted strategic infrastructure as winter temperatures set in in Ukraine.