Michael Weiss and James Rushton report:

Hours after the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to designate Russia as a “state sponsor of terrorism,” Russia unleashed its latest barrage of missiles aimed at Ukraine’s critical infrastructure — and its civilians.

Russia’s military bombed a maternity ward in Vilniansk, a small city in the Zaporizhzhia region, killing a 2-day old baby and injuring doctors and medics. The newborn’s mother survived the attack.

The capital city of Kyiv was plunged into darkness, and water supplies were largely cut off, as Russia’s latest salvo also hit power plants and power transmission stations across the country.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba accused Russia, which has lost more and more territory to successful Ukrainian counteroffensives, of “waging a cowardly war of terror against civilians.” Targeting infrastructure, Kuleba tweeted, was a purely vindictive measure owing to the Russians’ inability “to win in a fair fight with the Ukrainian army.” [Continue reading…]

The Washington Post reports:

After just six weeks of intense bombing of energy infrastructure, Russia has battered Ukraine to the brink of a humanitarian disaster this winter as millions of people potentially face life-threatening conditions without electricity, heat or running water.

As the scope of damage to Ukraine’s energy systems has come into focus in recent days, Ukrainian and Western officials have begun sounding the alarm but are also realizing they have limited recourse. Ukraine’s Soviet-era power system cannot be fixed quickly or easily. In some of the worst-hit cities, there is little officials can do other than to urge residents to flee — raising the risk of economic collapse in Ukraine and a spillover refugee crisis in neighboring European countries.

“Put simply, this winter will be about survival,” Dr. Hans Henri P. Kluge, regional director for the World Health Organization, told reporters on Monday in Kyiv, saying the next months could be “life-threatening for millions of Ukrainians.”

Already, snow has fallen across much of Ukraine and temperatures are dipping below freezing in many parts of the country. Dr. Kluge said that 2 million to 3 million Ukrainians were expected to leave their homes “in search of warmth and safety,” though it was unclear how many would remain inside the country. [Continue reading…]