Dhe President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy has described the Russian airstrikes as an unprecedented attack on his country’s energy supply. He warned of impending widespread power cuts across the country and called on the population to save energy. In Kyiv he received the first African head of state since the beginning of the war and at the same time received an alleged offer of negotiations from Moscow.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin is sticking to its accusations against Ukraine, which is said to be planning to detonate a radioactive bomb to discredit Moscow. Apparently, Moscow is also using false images to support the thesis.
Zelenskyj complains about terror against the energy sector
“Russian terrorists have created such difficult conditions for our energy workers that no one in Europe has ever seen or experienced anything like it,” Zelenskyi said in his daily video address on Wednesday, referring to the Russian airstrikes. In addition, he criticized what he said was insufficient implementation of the grain agreement. Russia continues to impede the export of Ukrainian food by sea. 175 ships were therefore stuck in traffic waiting to be cleared. “It is evident that Russia intends to exacerbate the global food crisis once again in order to bring back the threat of starvation.”
The words of the 44-year-old were primarily aimed at the governments in Africa, for which Ukraine is increasingly campaigning. “It is very important that on this continent, where the influence of the Kremlin is traditionally strong, they hear the Ukrainian position and know the full truth about what is really happening,” he stressed. Selenskyj had previously received the President of Guinea-Bissau, Umaro Sissoco Embaló, the first head of state from Africa since the outbreak of the war. Embaló said he had brought an offer of talks from Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom he had met in the Kremlin the day before. However, Moscow has not yet confirmed the offer.
Russia shows false evidence of nuclear allegations
With apparently false photos, the Russian Foreign Ministry tried to give the impression that it had evidence of the construction of a “dirty” – i.e. nuclear-contaminated – bomb in Ukraine. One of the pictures, which appeared on the ministry’s English-language Twitter account, belongs to the Slovenian Agency for Radioactive Waste and dates from 2010, the online newspaper Ukrajinska Pravda reported on Wednesday. The Russian accusation that Kyiv is planning to use a radioactive bomb is interpreted in the West as a possible pretext for a further escalation of the war. Kyiv rejects the allegations.
