Donors meet in Paris to get Ukraine through winter, bombing

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who spoke by video link, said 12 million Ukrainians are suffering power outages. He said the country needs electricity generators as urgently as it also needs armoured vehicles and armoured vests for its troops.

Dozens of countries and international organisations were throwing their weight behind a fresh and urgent push on December 13 to keep Ukraine powered, fed, warm and moving in the face of sustained Russian aerial bombardments that have plunged millions into the cold and dark in winter.

An international donor conference in Paris was expected to raise and help coordinate many tens of millions of dollars of aid — both financial and in kind — to be rushed to Ukraine in coming weeks and months to help its beleaguered civilian population survive winter's freezing temperatures and long nights.

Russia grinds on in eastern Ukraine; Bakhmut ‘destroyed”

French President Emmanuel Macron, in a speech opening the conference, described Moscow's bombardments of civilian targets as a war crime. He said the Kremlin is attacking civilian infrastructure because its troops have suffered setbacks on the battlefields. Moscow's intention is to “plunge the Ukrainian people into despair,” Mr. Macron said.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who spoke by video link, said 12 million Ukrainians are suffering power outages. He said the country needs electricity generators as urgently as it also needs armoured vehicles and armoured vests for its troops.

As temperatures plunge and snow falls, Ukraine's needs are huge and pressing. Successive waves of missile and drone attacks since October have destroyed about half of Ukraine's energy infrastructure, the government in Kyiv says. It says Russia is trying to create a fresh wave of refugees to Europe. Russia says striking civilian infrastructure is intended to weaken Ukraine's ability to defend itself.