UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said Russia’s attacks on Ukraine’s energy sector on Monday night – as temperatures dropped to -20C (-4F) – were “barbaric” and “particularly depraved”,
He made the comments after speaking to US President Donald Trump hours after Russia hit power plants and critical infrastructure in the capital, Kyiv, and elsewhere.
The attacks came at the end of a week-long pause that Trump had asked Russia’s President Vladimir Putin to observe as a fierce cold swept Ukraine.
Trump said on Tuesday that Putin had “kept his word” and that he would like him to end the war. Top US envoys are meeting negotiators from Russia and Ukraine in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday and Thursday.
Asked by reporters whether he was disappointed with Russia’s renewed attacks, Trump said, “it [the agreement] was on Sunday, and he [Putin] went from Sunday to Sunday.
“It’s a lot, you know, one week, we’ll take anything, because it’s really, really cold over there.”
The damage from the strikes was extensive, with more than 1,000 tower blocks in Kyiv without heating and a power plant in the eastern city of Kharkiv beyond repair.
Residents were forced to spend the night sheltering in metro stations, with some pitching tents on the platforms to protect them from the freezing cold.
The authorities have been setting up centres around Kyiv for the city’s inhabitants to go to warm up. They are also importing more generators in order to cope with longer blackout periods as engineers try to repair damage.
Ukraine has complained repeatedly of a shortage of missiles – urging allies to deliver more.
Nato’s Secretary-General Mark Rutte was in Kyiv hours after the attacks and said he was urging member countries to “dig deep in their stockpiles” and provide the missiles Ukraine needs.
