Ukraine's Zelenskiy: we survived winter, but energy risks remain
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Zelenskiy said Russia still poses a threat to the energy and heat generating system.
KYIV (Reuters) - Ukrainians survived the past winter thanks to government efforts to ensure energy and heat, but Russia still poses a threat to the generating system, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday.
The first day of March is traditionally marked in Ukraine -- and Russia - as the end of winter though cold weather may well continue. Russia has mounted regular waves of missile strikes on power stations in a calculated strategy to bring ordinary Ukrainians to their knees.
"Winter is over. It was a very difficult one and every Ukrainian, without exaggeration, felt the difficulties," Zelenskiy said in his nightly video message, delivered after a meeting devoted to energy issues.
"But we managed to provide Ukraine with energy and heat. The threat to the energy system remains. And work goes on to ensure the energy system keeps functioning."
Zelenskiy said officials discussed how to make the usual transition from winter to summer energy needs, adding that "we see the risks and will come up with a response."
Human rights groups say attacks on energy targets have a considerable effect on civilians and some groups say they should be investigated as war crimes. The strikes have at times knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians in their homes.
UKRAINE IS FIERCELY RESISTING RUSSIAN ASSAULT
Ukrainian forces are fiercely resisting a Russian attempt to seize the small city of Bakhmut and are throwing massive extra reserves into the bloody battle, Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of Russia's Wagner mercenary force, said on Wednesday.
Prigozhin's men have spearheaded the assault in eastern Ukraine for months with Moscow regarding Bakhmut, which it calls by its Soviet-era name of Artyomovsk, as a useful stepping stone to seize bigger cities like Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.
Speaking separately, Ukraine's armed forces said Russian troops were advancing near Bakhmut, while President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said all fronts were under control.
Reuters was unable to immediately verify the latest accounts.
Ukrainian commanders have warned in recent days that the situation on the ground is getting much harder as Russia steps ups its attempts to encircle Bakhmut to claim its first major prize for more than half a year after some of the bloodiest fighting of the war.
"The Ukrainian army is throwing extra reserves into Artyomovsk and trying to hold the town with all their strength," Prigozhin said in a message released by his press service.
"Tens of thousands of Ukrainian army fighters are putting up furious resistance. The bloodiness of the battles is growing by the day."
Thousands of residents remain inside the ruined city from a pre-war population of around 70,000.
"The enemy continues to advance. The assault on the city of Bakhmut continues," the general staff of the Ukrainian armed forces said in a Facebook post.
Hours later, Zelenskiy said in a video address that "we are keeping each sector of the front under control". He accused Russian forces of shelling cities on the frontline in a campaign of "deliberate terror".
As Russia kept Ukraine under pressure around Bakhmut, its defence ministry said its forces had repelled what it described as a massive drone attack on Crimea by Kyiv's forces, Russian news agencies reported.
Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. Kyiv demands that Moscow hand it back.
The defence ministry said the attempted Ukrainian drone attack had not inflicted any casualties.
The Kremlin said earlier on Wednesday it did not believe a statement by Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak that Ukraine does not launch attacks against targets on Russian territory.
