Ukraine Faces 'Toughest Winter' Since 2022, UN Warns — SkimNews
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- Alexander De Croo, head of the UN development agency and former Belgian prime minister, told the BBC this winter will be the toughest since the war began in 2022, adding the UN is 'very, very worried about what this winter could become.'
- De Croo warned of a 'worst-case scenario' in which loss of energy would shut down heating, water and sewage systems at winter temperatures reaching -20C — a situation 'really close to humanitarian catastrophe,' with no justification for Russia's targeting of energy transmission lines, petrol stations and business centres.
- Russia has begun deploying faster, jet-powered drones that are harder to intercept in around-the-clock strikes on Ukraine, especially Kyiv, escalating pressure on a power network already weakened by years of attacks.
- A Russian drone strike on a shopping mall in Pavlohrad (Dnipropetrovsk region) killed 5 people and wounded 67 on Thursday, following earlier-week attacks on shopping malls in Zaporizhzhia and Sumy that killed 2 and injured 28.
- Ukraine launched a seaborne drone strike on the Russian resort city of Sochi overnight Wednesday that wounded 28 people, per Russian reports, while Russian drones separately killed 2 at a Ukraine-Moldova border crossing earlier in the week.
- The UN Development Programme is rebuilding damaged parts of Ukraine's energy system and building decentralised energy plants less vulnerable to attack — work De Croo called 'almost an impossible task' because crews are reconstructing 'under constant, constant air alarms' at sites that are themselves targets.
Why it matters: Ukraine's energy crews are rebuilding grid infrastructure under 'constant, constant air alarms' while Russia deploys harder-to-intercept jet-powered drones — meaning the infrastructure needed to heat homes and run water this winter is itself a target. De Croo, the UN's third most senior official, publicly framed that risk as a potential 'humanitarian catastrophe' for millions of Ukrainians.
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