The Russian government has claimed Thursday that on Wednesday it carried out a series of «massive» land, sea and air strikes against the Ukrainian Army’s «command and control system», including targets «related to energy facilities».
«On November 23, the Russian Armed Forces carried out massive attacks with long-range weapons by land, sea and air against the Army’s command and control system and related energy facilities,» Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov has said.
He said that «as a result of the attacks, the transfer of Ukrainian Armed Forces reserves, foreign weapons, military equipment and ammunition to combat zones by rail was disrupted,» according to the Russian news agency Interfax.
Konashenkov denied that Russia attacked targets in or around the capital, Kiev, and stressed that «all the destruction announced by the Kiev regime in the city was the result of falling missiles from Ukrainian and foreign air defense systems deployed in residential areas of the capital.»
For his part, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stressed that Moscow does not attack «social facilities» in Ukraine. «Attention is paid to this,» he noted, before indicating that «Targets directly or indirectly related to the (Ukrainian) military potential are likely to be defeated.»
«The Ukrainian leadership has a chance to normalize the situation and has every opportunity to resolve the situation in a way that meets Russia’s requirements and stops any possible suffering on the part of civil society,» Peskov concluded.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced Russia’s attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure as crimes against humanity before the UN Security Council on Wednesday, saying that in conditions where the population endures sub-zero temperatures and tens of millions of people are left without electricity, such shelling is «Russia’s formula for terror.»