Denys Shmyhal, Ukraine’s Prime Minister, has appealed for Patriot missile batteries and other hi-tech air defense systems to counter Russian attacks.
Shmyhal made this appeal as more Russian shelling was reported on Monday, December 12, 2022 in the eastern regions of Ukraine where Moscow is trying to make battlefield gains.
Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal revealed that Russia wants to saturate Europe with a new wave of Ukrainian refugees by its targeting of infrastructure in Ukraine that has caused electricity and water outages.
The provision of Patriot surface-to-air missiles to Ukraine would mark a major advance in the kinds of air defense systems the West is sending to help the war-torn country defend itself from Russian aerial attack.
So far no country has offered them, although Germany has provided Patriot missiles to neighboring Poland, its NATO ally.
Millions of Ukrainians have already fled the country since the Russian invasion started on February 24, 2022 and there are fears that many more could leave their homes during winter.
Thousands of people have lost their lives and dozens of cities and towns across Ukraine have been reduced to rubble during the Russian onslaught.
Ukraine also needs resupplies of artillery shells and modern battle tanks, Shmyhal noted.
The more than 1,000 Russian attacks on infrastructure since October are designed “to trigger another wave of migration toward Europe,” he insisted.
The Kremlin has said attacks on Ukraine’s energy supply system were a retaliation for what Moscow claims was a Kyiv-orchestrated attack on the key, Russian-built bridge to the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014.
Repeated Russian strikes on infrastructure have left millions of Ukrainians without power, heating or water throughout the country.
Russian drone attacks near the Black Sea port of Odesa destroyed several energy facilities at once and left all customers except hospitals, maternity homes, boiler plants and pumping stations without power.
Ukraine’s power provider, Ukrenergo, disclosed on Monday, December 12, 2022 that the situation in the country’s energy system has remained difficult after Russian attacks, particularly in Odesa.
To defend against further strikes, Shmyhal reiterated previous Ukrainian calls for Patriot surface-to-air missiles; a highly sophisticated system that so far hasn’t been forthcoming.
The Prime Minister also requested for more German and French air-defense systems that those countries have already supplied.
Ukraine needs large quantities of shells to retaliate against Russian artillery, Shmyhal said.
Russia fires 50,000 to 70,000 shells per day at Ukrainian targets and “we need at least one third of that quantity every day,” he added.
EU Foreign Ministers Discuss Sanctions Against Russia
Meanwhile, the European Union’s foreign ministers also convened on Monday, December 12, 2022 in Brussels to discuss fresh sanctions to further punish Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
Irish Foreign Minister, Simon Coveney, sharply condemned “deliberate targeting by Russia of civilians in terms of inflicting suffering on a broad population.”
Coveney described Russia’s actions as “a crime, in terms of both aggression and a crime against humanity.”
“This is one country invading another. Brutalizing civilian populations in order to try and get its way, and I think the world has to try and take a stand against that.”
Irish Foreign Minister, Simon Coveney
Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s office said that two civilians were killed and 10 others were wounded in Russia’s shelling of the town of Hirnyk in the eastern, Donetsk region today, December 12, 2022.
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