Myroslava Shcherbatiuk- Ambassador of Ukraine to Jordan

While diplomatic efforts and international negotiations on peace in Ukraine continue, Putin is conducting its own form of “dialogue” with the Ukrainian people — not through words, but through missiles, drones, and systematic attacks on civilian infrastructure.

This winter, one of the harshest since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale aggression against Ukraine, temperatures have repeatedly fallen to minus 20 degrees Celsius and below. During this period, Russia has carried out near-daily strikes on Ukraine’s energy system and residential neighborhoods. As a result, millions of civilians in Ukraine have been left without electricity, heating, and water at a time when these services are not a matter of comfort, but of survival.

These Russian attacks are deliberate. They are launched during the coldest days, when the absence of power and heat poses a direct threat to human life — especially for the elderly, women, and children. In many Ukrainian cities and towns, including Kyiv, families are forced to live in frozen apartments, hospitals struggle to function without stable electricity. Entire cities are pushed to the edge of humanitarian catastrophe. This is not a by-product of Russian war against Ukraine; it is a method.

In the fourth year of its war of aggression, and having failed to achieve decisive success on the battlefield, Russia has increasingly turned its weapons against civilians. The destruction of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure has no military necessity. It does not serve the needs of the occupational army or Russian defense industry. Its purpose is to punish the civilian population for its refusal to submit and to make ordinary life impossible.

From the perspective of international humanitarian and criminal law, such actions constitute grave violations. Deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of a national group, in whole or in part, is explicitly prohibited under the Genocide Convention. When energy infrastructure is targeted during extreme winter conditions, depriving civilians of heat, water, and electricity, such acts can be legally qualified not only as war crimes and acts of terror, but also as acts that meet the criteria of genocide.

These attacks are part of a broader pattern. They are accompanied by the destruction of Ukrainian cultural heritage, the deportation of Ukrainian children, the imposition of an education system in occupied territories aimed at erasing national identity, and the systematic theft of cultural property. Together, these actions form a coherent policy of Russia aimed at the elimination of Ukrainian nation’s ability to exist as itself.

Through this campaign, Putin seeks to project his “strength” and cruelty to the world. In reality, his decisions reveal his strategic failure. Attempts to make Ukraine uninhabitable are a stark reminder of the collapse of the original “blitzkrieg” plans of the Kremlin and the inability to subjugate Ukraine through military force alone.

There are also broader objectives. By attempting to turn Ukraine into an unlivable territory, Russia seeks to demonstrate that any country resisting its aggression will face unbearable consequences. This message is intended not only for Ukraine, but also for others — particularly former Soviet republics and countries of Central Europe — as part of a long-standing ambition to restore a sphere of influence reminiscent of the Soviet era.

Another objective is demographic. By killing civilians and forcing millions to flee through sustained airstrikes and the destruction of essential services, Russia is waging a demographic war. Ukrainian history knows such policies all too well. The Holodomor of 1932–1933, a man-made famine imposed by the totalitarian Soviet regime, claimed millions of innocent lives and remains a tragic reminder of how the deliberate destruction of living conditions can be used as a weapon.

Despite the scale and intensity of the attacks, Ukraine continues to endure. Every day, emergency repair works are carried out across the country. Nearly 58,000 energy sector workers operate around the clock, often under fire, restoring power lines, substations, and heating systems. Their work is not only technical — it is an act of preserving life.

Ukraine has appealed to its partners and friends around the world for assistance with energy equipment, power supplies, and critical materials for the electricity and gas sectors. The estimated cost of the most urgent needs exceeds one billion euros. Many countries have already launched successful assistance initiatives to Ukraine, and efforts are underway to expand this support to other regions of the world.

History offers a clear lesson. Terrorising civilians has never brought victory to an aggressor. When an army cannot be defeated on the battlefield, targeting the population does not lead to political success. On the contrary, it only deepens resistance and strengthens the determination of Ukraine to endure.

In a world already facing multiple crises, Russia has imposed an additional and preventable burden – both on Ukraine and the global humanitarian system. By creating a new large-scale war, Russia has diverted resources needed for civilians and refugees in other conflict-affected regions, including the Middle East, leaving already vulnerable communities with fewer means of survival and recovery.

Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine must be stopped.
This is not a political request.
It is a human one — for the sake of humanity.