Day 274: Most of Ukraine Without Power After Renewed Russian Strikes

Facts

• Renewed Russian strikes on Ukraine's already-weakened energy infrastructure left most of the country without power on Wednesday night, compounding the struggle of many Ukrainians amid winter weather that reached sub-freezing temperatures in many areas.
• Ukrainian officials reported that three civilians were killed and 11 were injured in the city of Kyiv, while an additional four people were killed and 35 were injured in the wider Kyiv region.
• As a result of the strikes, Ukrainian Pres. Volodymyr Zelenskyy instructed the country's ambassador to the UN to request an urgent Security Council meeting. He used his address at the conference, held later in the day, to state that Ukraine will put forward a resolution condemning "any forms of energy terror." Referring to Russia’s likely veto, Zelenskyy added: "It’s nonsense that the veto right is secured for the party that wages this war, this criminal war."
• On Thursday, while power was restored to some parts of the country, Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said that 70% of the capital was still without electricity. Meanwhile, Ukraine's energy minister Herman Halushchenko said the country's four nuclear power plants are expected to be reconnected later in the day, after after all of them were disconnected for the first time since the war began.
• In Donetsk, still the scene of the heaviest fighting, Ukrainian officials reported two civilians have been killed and three more injured as a result of Russian attacks in the last 24 hours. Meanwhile, pro-Russia separatists from the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) reported that one civilian was killed and one more was injured in Ukrainian attacks over the same period.
• Elsewhere, in his weekly address at the Vatican on Wednesday, Pope Francis linked the current suffering of Ukrainians to the "genocide artificially caused by Stalin" in the 1930s, known as Holodomor. While academics accept Holodomor was a man-made famine, killing upwards of 3M people, the question of whether it constitutes genocide is controversial, as some argue it was caused by state incompetence and that other regions of the Soviet Union also suffered.

Sources: Associated Press, Pravda, and Ukrinform.

Narratives

• Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by CNBC. Russia's deliberate targeting of energy infrastructure — which is unnecessarily increasing the suffering of civilians — amounts to war crimes. This continuing Russian barbarity must be confronted.
• Pro-Russia narrative, as provided by Tass. Attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure are a direct consequence of the failure of the country's leadership to meaningfully engage in peace talks. These attacks will stop once a more sober position on the reality of Ukraine's slim chance of military success is reached.

Predictions