Devastated infrastructure to cause anguish in Ukraine as winter looms: Red Cross

By Peter Kenny

GENEVA (AA) - The International Red Cross said on Wednesday that it has acted with Ukrainian authorities in areas affected by the war with Russia to repair badly damaged infrastructure and provide materials for people to make massive essential home repairs.

"The recurrent attacks against essential civilian infrastructure in the context of the Russia-Ukraine international armed conflict are disrupting access to key services, causing major civilian suffering, especially as temperatures have started to drop significantly," the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said in a statement.

"Hostilities have had an outsized effect on essential infrastructure, including power and water supply systems which have sustained heavy damage in recent weeks," it added

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday that about 40% of the country's energy infrastructure had been seriously damaged by Russia’s missile and drone strikes.

Russia has launched several destructive missile and drone strikes as Ukraine accused Moscow of aiming at civilian targets and essential infrastructure, such as energy facilities.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said Wednesday that water and power supplies were restored in the Ukrainian capital, but the city may face blackouts.

This came two days after Ukrainian officials said Russia launched a flurry of 55 cruise missiles targeting the country's civilian infrastructure.

"As winter closes in, people are going to struggle to meet their basic needs like having clean drinking water and staying warm. Targeting civilian infrastructure puts civilian lives in peril and is prohibited by international humanitarian law," said Guislain Defurne, the ICRC's head of operations in Ukraine.

- Continued support

"Our teams will continue supporting affected communities and local authorities with whom we've worked closely for years," said Defurne.

In addition to its work to repair essential infrastructure, the ICRC -- in partnership with the Ukrainian Red Cross Society -- said it also provided more than 63 million Swiss francs in financial support to over 330,000 particularly vulnerable people living in areas directly affected by hostilities.

People living in those areas share major concerns as power cuts and frigid temperatures become the norm, a particularly perilous situation for vulnerable civilians like the elderly, the injured, children, and people with disabilities, said the Red Cross.

The ICRC quoted the fears of Tetiana, a resident of Shevchenkove, a small town in the Kharkiv region in the north of Ukraine.

"I am very worried about those who have been left homeless. A friend's house was heavily damaged. Doors and windows were smashed, as were the roof and the ceiling," she said.

"Winter is around the corner, and there is no gas, light, or water. You can imagine what it's like."

The ICRC has worked on electricity and water rehabilitation projects since 2014 when Russia led attacks in southeastern Ukraine and annexed Crimea.

It said it had scaled up activities in Ukraine over the past eight months, including support to 27 water boards in major urban areas like Kyiv, Chernihiv, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, and Luhansk.