Russia’s Federal Security Service announced yesterday that it had foiled an attempt by Ukrainian security services to carry out what it said was a sabotage of the South Stream gas pipeline.
The South Stream gas pipeline project was intended to transport Russian gas across the Black Sea to Bulgaria, but was later canceled and replaced by the Turkish Stream project.
In addition, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russian air raids on Ukrainian power grids constitute a “clear crime against humanity.”
Yesterday at an emergency meeting of the Security Council, he stressed that the international community “cannot be held hostage by an international terrorist (force),” referring to Russia’s use of the veto to stop any resolution condemning it.
“When the temperature is below zero, and millions of people are left without energy, without heating and without water, this is a clear crime against humanity,” Zelensky said.
The 15 members of the Security Council held this emergency meeting at the request of Kyiv after Russian strikes on the Ukrainian electricity grid on Wednesday killed six people and cut off electricity and water for millions of people, especially in the capital, Kyiv, and disconnected three nuclear power plants from the grid, which led to a power outage throughout neighboring Moldova.
Zelenskiy tweeted ahead of the meeting in New York: “Killing civilians and destroying civilian infrastructure are acts of terrorism. Ukraine continues to demand a firm response from the international community to these crimes.
According to the Ukrainian Air Force, Russia launched about 70 cruise missiles, 51 of which were shot down, as well as five decoy drones. These bombings target strategic infrastructure at a time when temperatures in Ukraine are getting colder and colder as winter approaches.
For her part, UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Rose Marie DiCarlo told the UN Security Council on Wednesday that the exchange of Russian and Ukrainian prisoners of war was a positive development amid the “dark news” of Russian strikes on Ukraine.
