Over a million households without power in Ukraine after Russian attacks on power grid

ABC NEWS (Australia)

More than a million households have been left without power in Ukraine after Russia launched attacks on the power grid. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Russia has launched more than 450 drones and 30 missiles at Ukraine. He says the brunt of the attack was felt in the southern Odesa region where supplies of electricity and water have been knocked out. Kyiv resident Anastasiya Byesyedina says it's been a challenging start to winter in the war-torn country.

Transcript

00:00absolutely um in the last two to three months russia has escalated its attacks on ukrainian

00:10critical infrastructure today for example my neighborhood my city is sitting on three to six

00:18hours of electricity per day when russia strikes strikes our electric electrical power grids

00:26it means that the state needs to kind of balance power amongst the citizens and it really becomes

00:34kind of impossible to do the everyday things such as you know doing your laundry or simply taking a

00:40shower or even cooking so it has become very difficult and i think this has been the most

00:47challenging winter so far you're living near kiev and you're able to see out of your window these

00:55missile strikes when they do happen talk to us about living in such a time of uncertainty and

01:01instability absolutely look um i live in kiev and my neighborhood um just sits on the outer skirts of

01:10the city and the region of kiev and my kitchen windows are pretty much like a little um cinema

01:19theater if you want to make you know kind of a bit of a humor out of the situation you get to see

01:24um the actual action from your kitchen and that's very scary um because first of all um the first

01:33thing that a ukrainian should do is go seek shelter when there are air raids but unfortunately shelters are

01:40not available everywhere and you try your best to stay three walls you know apart from your windows but

01:48sometimes you know curiosity strikes and you witness a really bizarre moments out of your window

01:53you you as drones you witness ballistic missiles just flying above um your roof

02:00we can't imagine how difficult it must be to live through that and and of course you know from the

02:07outside we're hearing about these peace talks that are ongoing of course president zelinski is

02:13involved in these peace talks i do wonder though at home in ukraine what is the general assessment

02:19of his leadership especially after his close allies were linked to a major corruption scandal so what's

02:26the general view of him as a leader absolutely that's a fair question i think something that you

02:33everybody should know about ukrainians is that while we're very critical of our domestic politics when it

02:39comes to things such as ukrainian sovereignty we are full behind our ukrainian president who has been

02:46democratically elected so despite the very fact that there has been corruption within his office

02:53and thankfully that correction corruption has been um quite transparent to be honest and that's quite

02:59a good remark about a ukrainian state function um ukrainian people are definitely behind his message of

03:05keeping to the sovereignty of ukraine because quite frankly the peace peace deals are not peace deals

03:12they're business deals between trump and putin so uh ukrainians are full ahead in support of zelensky on

03:18the ground yeah just just on that point you know we are heading into the fourth year of this war in

03:24february next year it'll be the fourth year discussions over peace and the possible cessation of land to russia

03:32that's all on the table and the negotiating table what's the general view about this particular path to peace

03:40well um the deal that's thrown up is not a deal that unfortunately advantages ukraine if we have a

03:46look at um you know the bullet points it only favors russia um amnesty to russian crimes ceding of land no

03:54security guarantees that's not kind of a deal that works for ukraine and we're hoping that perhaps there

04:01will be some more diplomatic talks that do involve europe in pursuing um you know more security

04:07guarantees that are in favor of ukraine because ukraine is the victim and the blatant aggressor

04:13is russia and i'm sorry ukraine is not going to bend to russia's plans of blatantly taking over the

04:20land that it has occupied and there's no guarantee that you won't expand and i i know that you have dual

04:28citizenship uh ukraine australian citizenship you grew up in australia also do you see a time when

04:36perhaps you may return to sydney permanently oh i dream of the ocean of team tams and salt and vinegar

04:46chips every single day and i'm actually i came back to sydney to campus for one semester in the beginning

04:53of the year and it was shocking to come back to sydney you know just twitching at the sound of

05:00airplanes seeing people freely and just fully so living in a democratic and peaceful country it

05:06felt really amazing so at the moment i'm in kiev i'm not too sure what you know the future holds but

05:12i'd love to come back to sydney because i see it as also my you know my home i did move to sydney when i

05:18was seven years old so i do have that you know duality mentality and identity i hope to see more

05:25of sydney in the future but for now i am here

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended