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Winter threatens millions of people, after Russian bombing of the electricity grid

Winter threatens millions of people, after Russian bombing of the electricity grid

Russia bombarded Ukraine’s energy facilities in recent weeks, leaving millions of homes without power coinciding with the first snowfall.

The damage “is already having lethal effects on the health system and on people’s health”said Hans Kluge, WHO regional director for Europe.

This winter will represent “a threat to the lives of millions of people in Ukraine”he warned.

The regional director specified that up to three million people may be forced to leave their homes in search of safety and warmth.

“They will have to face health challenges, including respiratory infections such as covid-19, pneumonia, the flu,” he warned. In addition, there will be a “serious risk of diphtheria and measles for an under-vaccinated population.”

The attacks on the Ukrainian power grid follow a series of Russian pushbacks on the battlefield, including its withdrawal from the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson.

After the departure of the Moscow forces from this town, capital of the region of the same name, the prosecution announced having discovered “torture sites” Used by the Russians.

war crimes

“In Kherson, prosecutors continue to determine Russia’s crimes,” the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office said on Monday’s Telegram. Officials found “torture sites” in “four buildings,” she added.

Among those four buildings visited by the investigators, there are “provisional detention centers” from before the war, “where, during the takeover of the city, the occupants illegally detained people and brutally tortured them,” the prosecution said.

The town was the first to fall into Russian hands after the invasion on February 24. The Ukrainian army recaptured the city, the capital of the region of the same name, on November 11.

The Russian withdrawal, the third major since the start of the invasion, represented a severe setback for President Vladimir Putin.

Investigators seized “pieces of rubber batons, a wooden bat, a device used by the occupants to electrocute civilians, an incandescent lamp and bullets,” added the prosecutor’s office.

Since retaking the city, kyiv has repeatedly denounced “war crimes” and “atrocities” committed by the Russians in the region, one of four that Moscow annexed in September.

execution of Russian soldiers

Russia has not reacted to these accusations so far, but promised to “punish” on Monday those responsible for the alleged execution of a group of Russian soldiers in Ukrainedenounced by Moscow as a “war crime”.

Russia accused Ukraine on Friday of executing more than 10 of its soldiers who had laid down their arms, based on videos posted on social media.

“Of course, Russia will search for the perpetrators of this crime. They must be found and punished,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said.

He added that Moscow will resort to international instances for this purpose, “if it can be useful”.

In the first video, about ten presumably Russian soldiers emerge one after the other from a shed with their hands up. They then lie face down on the ground under the command of apparently Ukrainian soldiers who hold them at gunpoint.

The recording cuts off abruptly as another person comes out of the shed and appears to be shooting. Another video recorded by a drone shows the same place with a dozen bodies of soldiers on the ground, in the middle of pools of blood.

The Ukrainian parliamentary commission on human rights denied on Sunday that the Ukrainian army had executed Russian prisoners of war.

According to this commission, Ukrainian soldiers defended themselves against Russian soldiers who pretended to surrender.

The Russian soldiers killed in that incident “cannot then be considered as prisoners of war,” argued Dmytro Lubynets, Ukraine’s human rights officer.

The United Nations said last week that it was aware of the videos and was analyzing them. One report noted that there were credible allegations of abuses committed by both parties.

Source: Ambito

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