kyiv wants to make new Russian city ‘unlivable’ – top official — RT Russia and the former Soviet Union
Ukraine is trying to shut down Energodar gas-fired power plant and leave residents without heat, local leader claims
Ukrainian troops are carrying out artillery strikes on Energodar in the Zaporozhye region, one of four provinces newly incorporated into Russia, acting governor Yevgeny Balitsky said on Wednesday, accusing kyiv of trying to make life unbearable for inhabitants.
« The enemy concentrated the bombardments on our [gas-fired] power station to derail our preparations for the winter season, and to demonstrate that the authorities are not capable of heating the city”, Balitsky said on Russian television on Wednesday.
He believes that kyiv intends to « destroy the infrastructure and make [Energodar] unlivable. The Ukrainian government wants to regain control of the region, but does not want the people who live there to stay, he insisted.
Over the past 24 hours, there have been more than 40 artillery fires on and around the city, with some of the shelling being carried out in a chaotic manner, Balitsky said.
He claimed that the Ukrainian artillery does not seem to care about picking high value targets and uses expensive US-supplied ammunition to cause relatively minor damage.
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“They even touched the railroad. It cost us 100,000 rubles ($1,680) to fix, and they spent $200,000. And shoot indiscriminately throughout the territory,” he said. « The Americans are pumping a lot of money into Ukraine, so they can spend [ammo] absolutely without reservations.”
Russia took control of much of the Zaporozhye region at the start of its military operation against Ukraine. The region voted in a referendum last month to join Russia. President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday signed into law four acts that formalize the transfer of Zaporozhye and three other former Ukrainian regions under Russian sovereignty.
kyiv rejected the ballot box and the status change and pledged to use military force to drive Russia out of all land Ukraine considers its own. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has said he wants all people to live by his government’s terms « temporarily occupied territories » under the jurisdiction of kyiv, but threatened to punish « collaborators » who cooperated with Russia.
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