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Russian President Vladimir Putin admitted on Thursday that Moscow is targeting Ukraine’s critical civilian infrastructure and has vowed to continue strikes – which have left millions of people without heat, light and water as winter set in.
“There is a lot of noise about our strikes against the neighboring country’s energy infrastructure,” Putin said during an award ceremony in the Kremlin on Thursday. “Yes we’ll do that. But who started it?”
Drink in hand and sneering, he said international condemnation of the strikes “will not prevent us from achieving our military objectives.”
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Since early October, Moscow has fired volleys of missiles at energy and infrastructure sites across Ukraine, causing rolling blackouts and depriving entire neighborhoods of water, electricity and, in some cases, heat as freezing winter temperatures plummet.
Ukrainian officials and some Western leaders have labeled Moscow’s actions as potential war crimes due to their impact on civilians. The Kremlin insists the bombings have a military purpose, but in his comments on Thursday Putin described them as revenge.
The Russian president accused Kyiv of provoking the strikes, noting in particular an attack in early October on the Crimean Bridge – a $4 billion symbol of Putin’s imperial ambitions in Ukraine, which connects Crimea to mainland Russia.
Kyiv did not officially claim responsibility for this explosion, but the event was widely celebrated in Ukraine, and officials have privately acknowledged the role of Ukraine’s special services.
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“Who hit the Crimean Bridge?” asked Putin. “Who blew up the power lines of the Kursk nuclear power plant?”
Putin also accused the world of keeping silent as Ukraine mistreated citizens in the predominantly Russian-speaking Donetsk region — even though it was Russia that fomented a separatist war there from 2014.
“Who doesn’t supply Donetsk with water?” asked Putin. “Not providing water to a city of 1 million people is an act of genocide.”
Since Moscow’s infrastructure attacks began, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged citizens to ration their electricity use and seek shelter from airstrikes.
“To get through this winter, we need to help each other more than ever and take care of each other even more,” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram on Thursday. “To get through the winter, we must be more resilient and united than ever.”
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